Winners and Losers of the 2025 Men's Final Four

The 2025 men's Final Four became the 2025 men's Final Two on Saturday night in San Antonio, Florida defeating Auburn 79-73 in the all-SEC semifinal before Houston stunned Duke 70-67 in the nightcap.

Both games featured wild second-half comebacks, after the team that felt like it dominated the first 20 minutes never quite managed to put the game out of reach.

The Gators and Cougars will return to the Alamodome on Monday night in what will be a battle for all the marbles.

Before we look ahead, though, let's look back on an entertaining night of national semifinals by crowning Saturday's winners and losers.

Early on in the Final Four opener between the SEC's regular season and conference tournament champions, it looked as though the story was going to be Florida's inability to contain Auburn's interior attack.

In building up its 46-38 halftime advantage, Auburn was +12 on points in the paint and even +1 on the glass against a Gators team that has owned the rebounding battle pretty much all season long. Johni Broome's injured elbow looked just fine as went to work any time Florida left Alex Condon on an island against him.

But while Broome vanished in the second half, scoring his final points with more than 15 minutes remaining in regulation, it was Florida's one-two backcourt punch that took the game over en route to a 79-73 victory.

Walter Clayton Jr. had a legendary performance, finishing with 34 points. He single-handedly kept Auburn from running away with the game, scoring 18 of Florida's 31 points during a 15-minute stretch that spanned halftime. He went 11-for-18 from the field, and it felt like the only times he missed shots were on drives where the Gators fans in the Alamodome were adamantly screaming for a foul.

But it was Alijah Martin who brought the thunder with his two fast-break dunks in the second half. The first "pick-two" gave Florida a 59-57 lead, but it was the second one that was even more emphatic and felt like a back-breaker from which the Tigers never recovered.

Martin only scored half as many points (17) as Clayton, but there were some seriously loud points in the mix there.

That dynamic duo combined for 27 points in the second half, equaling Auburn's total after the intermission.

While Florida's star guards put up points in bunches, the biggest difference between the first and second halves of the first game was in the margins.

Turnover and rebound margins, that is.

Florida dialed up the intensity during the intermission, forcing 12 turnovers in the second half compared to just two in the first 20 minutes. The Gators were also +10 on the glass and completely shut off Auburn's water in the paint, holding a wildly efficient offense to 27 points.

After shooting 17-for-33 overall and 13-for-18 on two-point attempts in the first half, Auburn could not buy a bucket after the elongated halftime break.

Johni Broome drew five fouls in the second half, but went just 1-for-4 from the field and 1-for-5 from the free-throw line—the latter the one major Achilles' heel the first-team All-American had in his game all season, and a numbers game Florida was clearly willing to play.

At least Broome made a shot, though. Miles Kelly and Tahaad Pettiford went a combined 0-for-7 as the Tigers shot 8-for-24 overall—5-for-14 inside the arc, in what was a complete 180 from the first half.

Auburn wasn't exactly missing bunnies or wide-open jumpers, though. Florida looked like a completely different team on defense, making every possession miserable for the Tigers while executing the come-from-behind victory.

With eight minutes remaining, the second game of the night was as good as over.

Duke led 59-45.

Cooper Flagg had completely taken over.

Houston was hellbent on trying to score in the post, even though LJ Cryer and Emanuel Sharp three-point attempts were clearly their best source of offense.

Win probability models had the Blue Devils at 98.5 percent, the only question at that point by what final margin Duke would clinch its spot in Monday's national championship showdown with Florida.

But there's no quit in the Houston Cougars.

The turning point came right at the under-8:00 media timeout, and barely anyone in the Alamodome even noticed it happened.

While Cryer's sixth made triple of the night was in the air, Mason Gillis threw an elbow into the face of Joseph Tugler for what was ruled a dead-ball technical foul (even though it was a live ball?) which resulted in two free throws and the ball for the Cougars. Cryer made one of the two ensuing free throws and hit a two-point jumper moments later.

All of a sudden, a 14-point blowout became an eight-point contest without Duke even touching the ball.

Two more two-point buckets later and Houston had completed a 10-0 "kill shot" to trim the lead to four.

Flagg hit what felt like a dagger triple with three minutes remaining to push Duke's lead back to nine, but it wasn't meant to be.

Three offensive rebounds on a single possession brought Houston back to within seven. Two huge turnovers let the Cougars close the gap down to one.

And the most brutal sequence of Duke's epic collapse: career 77 percent free-throw shooter Tyrese Proctor missed the front end of a one-and-one, followed immediately by career 59 percent free-throw shooter J'Wan Roberts draining both halves of his one-and-one opportunity, giving Houston its first lead since it was 6-5.

If you read any preview content in the buildup to the Final Four, you likely already know that this Final Four featured four of the 10 best teams in KenPom history.

And of those four teams, Duke was the clear No. 1, with a greater adjusted efficiency margin than any team since the 1998-99 Blue Devils set the KenPom record.

With three likely one-and-done lottery picks at its disposal, Duke sliced through a weak ACC like a hot knife through butter, its average scoring margin in league play landing at +21.7 PPG.

All told, in the 38 games leading up to Saturday, the Blue Devils won 10 games by at least 30, and 29 by double digits.

Best offense in the country. Darn near the best defense, too. And the freshman-heavy team even seemed to be peaking at the perfect time.

As we kept bringing up that "best in a quarter century" data point, though, we sure did all just kind of gloss over a key point about that 1999 Duke team: It didn't win the national championship.

And if there was one big question mark about this Duke team heading into the tournament, it was the unknown of how it would respond in a tight game, having lost three of the four games it played in that were even remotely in doubt in the final minute. (Even that one win was a massive collapse against North Carolina in the ACC tournament, Duke getting bailed out by the lane violation heard 'round the world.)

Well, when adversity came for the Blue Devils, they wilted.

And though it was Flagg who missed the would-be go-ahead shot with about 10 seconds to go, it wasn't even the freshmen who faltered.

Grad senior Mason Gillis committed the aforementioned brutal technical foul. Grad senior Sion James committed a pair of turnovers down the stretch, both of which led to Houston buckets. Junior Maliq Brown committed a terrible foul along the perimeter, shortly after junior Tyrese Proctor committed a turnover. Proctor also had the fatal miss on the free throw.

And just like that, one of the most talented teams ever assembled will always remember the Alamo for all the wrong reasons.

Say what you will about the NIL era and the transfer portal, but Houston and Florida would not be here without it.

For the Gators, Walton Clayton Jr. got his start at Iona with Rick Pitino before finding his way to Todd Golden last year. Alijah Martin spent four years at Florida Atlantic before entering the portal, but he stayed within the state rather than following head coach Dusty May (and teammate Vlad Goldin) to Michigan. Rueben Chinyelu transferred completely across the country from Washington State to Florida. And though Will Richard has been a Gator for three years now, he started out at Belmont.

Those four starters combined for 63 of Florida's 79 points against Auburn.

Houston has considerably more home-grown talent than that, but does owe a lot of its success to the infamous portal.

LJ Cryer started out (and won a national championship) at Baylor before he bailed out the Cougars with 26 massive points against Duke. Point guard Milos Uzan didn't have a banner night against the Blue Devils (seven points, two assists, two turnovers), but the Cougars never would have been anything close to what they were this season were it not for that point guard from Oklahoma. And how about sixth-year senior and multiple-time transfer Mylik Wilson getting the crucial steal in the final minute?

So many key players coming from all over the place to produce an unforgettable Final Four, and hopefully an equally thrilling championship.

Will Cryer win a second title?

Or does Martin get the championship he was so close to winning in 2023?

Can't wait to find out.