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Men’s Elite Eight winners, losers: It pays to be No. 1

Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson holds the trophy for winning the Midwest Regional final of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

Men’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight winners, losers: It pays to be No. 1

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Mar 30, 2025 7:40 PM ET

The Final Four for the 2025 NCAA men's basketball tournament is set thanks to wins by Houston (69-50) over Tennessee, and Auburn (70-64) over Michigan State.

Houston and Auburn now join Florida and Duke in this year's Final Four in San Antonio where they will play for the national championship.

Here are some of the biggest winners and losers from Sunday's Elite Eight action.

Winner: No. 1 seeds

For only the second time since the NCAA men's tournament expanded to 64 teams, the Final Four will feature all four No. 1 seeds. Florida and Duke took care of their business on Saturday, while Auburn and Houston did the same on Sunday.

And there was very little doubt in either game on Sunday.

Houston dominated Tennessee on its way to a 19-point win, while Auburn used a 17-0 first-half run against Michigan State to jump out to a huge first-half lead it would never give up.

The 2008 tournament was the only other time all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four.

Loser: Tennessee's first half

The Volunteers picked the absolute worst time of the season for their offense to abandon them, scoring just 15 points in the first half of Sunday's Elite Eight game against Houston.

That 15-point performance was historically bad for a team seeded that high in the tournament.

Fewest points scored in a half in NCAA Tournament by top 2 seed since seeding began in 1979:
Kentucky 11 vs Georgetown in 1984 FF (2nd half)
Tennessee 15 vs Houston today (1st half)
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) March 30, 2025

Even though they played Houston even in the second half (35-35), it is almost impossible to overcome a 15-point half against one of the best teams in the country.

Winner: The SEC

Even though Alabama and Tennessee fell short in the quest to give the conference all four teams in the Final Four, Auburn and Florida still gave the conference two teams, and with them set to face each other in the semifinals, it guarantees that at least one SEC team will be playing for the national championship. That is fitting for the conference that has dominated the season.

Loser: The Big Ten

The Big Ten got off to one of the best starts in the tournament through the first two rounds, but quickly saw its teams get knocked off as the tournament went on. So much so that not one team will be representing the conference in the Final Four.

Tom Izzo's Michigan State team was the conference's last hope on Sunday, and it did not have enough to keep up with Auburn.

Winner: KenPom ratings

The KenPom ratings are not the end-all, be-all for evaluating college basketball teams, but they do give a pretty good indicator as to which teams are elite, which teams are contenders, and which teams are pretenders.

That rating system could not have been more accurate this season as it correctly nailed the top-four (and arguably top-five) teams in the country.

Credit, as usual, to KenPom.

His metrics show there's a clear gap between the top four teams in the country and the rest of the field — including Tennessee, which is clearly on paper the No. 5 team in the country. pic.twitter.com/2SDydVZngf
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) March 30, 2025

It does not always work out that perfectly for the analytics. It did this season in a very big way. At least for one season, the numbers did not lie at all.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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