It was just a close game on the court tonight as Florida came back to beat Houston in San Antonio. But that come back changed the leaderboard as well. 82 people picked the Gators to win (including the Lunatic in his insane picks). And more impressively, 23 people correctly picked Florida to beat Houston – so they completely got the Final 4 correct. This led to a lot of close standings in the pools.

Congratulations to our overall winner – Lowell Isaacs, who beat James Franklin and Austin McElroy by 30 points. Lowell’s total of 1510 points tied the highest ever winning score – matching John Homan’s record performance in 2009 when North Carolina beat Michigan State.

Congratulations to our upset pool winner – Ashley Peterson, who beat Debbe Evans by 16 points.

And congratulations to our second chance pool winner Amy Lacks – who beat Robert Ahles and Matt Reilly by 40 points (and only got 1 of the 15 games wrong).

And I think Amy deserves a special call out. Amy’s original picks scored 270 points and finished in last place of the standard pool. But everyone deserves a second chance, and Amy made the most of it by going from last to first. In a Final Four that was marked by its comebacks, Amy might have made the biggest comeback of March.

Lets congratulate all of our winners!!!!

STANDARD POOL

• 1st) Lowell Isaacs (1510)
• 2nd) James Frankin and Austin McElroy (1480)
• 4th) Karen Barton (1460)
• 5th) Steve Glass (1450)
• 6th) Drew Bradley (1440)
• 7th) Heath Lindvall and Earl McKnight (1400)
• 9th) Adrian Young and Andrea Zimmerman (1390)
• LAST) Amy Lacks (270)

UPSET POOL

• 1st) Ashley Peterson (275)
• 2nd) Debbe Evans (259)
• 3rd) Scott Grimes (250)
• 4th) Blake Viera (244)
• 5th) Andrea Zimmerman (240)

SECOND CHANCE POOL

• 1st) Amy Lacks (1000)
• 2nd) Robert Ahles and Matt Reilly (960)

As for our sleep-deprived Lunatic, thanks to Florida’s win, his insane picks stumbled up the leaderboard to finish in 82nd place (well, a tie for 81st before the tie-breakers). That feels like a really good stomping this year. I am sure that after a little bit of sleep, and a year to recover from this stomping, the Lunatic will be ready and excited to do this insanity all again.

Thank you to all of you for helping make this such a fun tournament for me to run each year. I love so much to get a chance to rant about my favorite time of year – March Madness! It makes me so happy to blog about the tournament, and that so many of you come back each year for another chance to Stomp the Lunatic – hopefully also enjoying the rantings of the Lunatic.

Congratulations again to our 2025 Stomp the Lunatic champion Lowell Isaacs, our upset pool champion Ashley Peterson, and our second chance pool champion Amy Lacks! And of course, congratulations again to the 2025 NCAA Men’s Champions – the Florida Gators!!!!

What a wild finish to a fantastic game!!!! You have a little controversy. You have a wild comeback. You have an amazing finish. It was a shame that someone had to lose the game. But there can only be one national champion.

Remember that Houston was up 12 points after the first technical foul, so it was impressive the game ever got this close. But that last 7 minutes was basically a one possession game the entire time.

With about 4 minutes left, J’Wan Robert drove to the basket and missed a layup, but Ja’Vier Francis followed it up with a monstrous dunk off the rebound to give Houston a 3 point lead. But Florida found Walter Clayton Jr off a curl near the top of the key for a three-pointer to tie the game at 60.

LJ Cryer drove to the basket for Houston and missed the floater in the lane, but he was able to get a hand on the rebound to tip it in. Florida got the ball out to Alijah Martin for a three-pointer and missed, but Will Richard got the offensive rebound and was fouled hard. Richard hit both free throws and we are tied at 62.

Jospeh Tugler got fouled off the ball, but with so many fouls on both teams, he went to the line to shoot two. Tugler hit the first and missed the second giving Houston a 63-62 lead. Florida came down the court and got the ball on the wing to Walter Clayton Jr for a three-pointer. But unlike what he had done all tournament with the game on the line, this shot missed and the Cougars got the rebound.

With the one point lead, Houston drew the shot clock down and Miles Uzan shot it for three from the top of the key, but Will Richard blocked it as the ball missed short and rolled out. LJ Cryer got the ball on the wing and drove to the baseline to shoot a jumper as the shot clock almost expired. He missed, and looked like he was fouled after the shot as the Florida defender ran into him trying to recover from being beat on the dribble. Houston’s Joseph Tugler got the offensive rebound, but Florida tied him up and caused him to lose the ball out of bounds.

Florida’s Alex Condon tried to drive the lane and made a nice spin to try to get open. But he was well guarded by Houston and missed the shot off the backboard. Houston now has the ball with a minute left clinging to a 1 point lead.

But LJ Cryer loses control of the ball and Alex Condon steals it with about 50 seconds. Condon gets the ball up the court to Alijah Martin who drives hard to the basket. He missed the layup but was fouled by Joseph Tugler sending Martin to the line. Alijah Martin hits both free throws and gives Florida a 64-63 lead – their first lead since it was 8-6 in the first half.

Houston came down the court to try to regain the lead, but as Emanuel Sharp drove to the basket, Will Richard would get a hand on the ball and Sharp would lose control of it giving the ball back to the Gators.

Florida struggles to get the ball inbounds but does finally get the ball in – they pass it up to an open Denzel Aberdeen but they overthrow him and it becomes a race for the ball. Aberdeen got there first, and got fouled by Milos Uzan right before Aberdeen stepped out.

Aberdeen missed the first free throw, and suddenly thoughts of the Duke game happened. Could Houston retake the lead off a missed free throw for the second time? However, Aberdeen managed to hit the second free throw to give Florida a two point lead with 20 seconds to play.

Florida plays great defense forcing LJ Cryer to the wing. With time running down, Cryer gets the ball to Emanuel Sharp for a straight-away three-pointer. Sharp jumps to take the shot, but Walter Clayton Jr makes a great close-out to force Sharp to not shoot it. Sharp tries to dribble it and realizes since he left his feet, he can’t touch the ball. After a second of confusion, Florida’s Alex Condon dives for the loose ball at mid-court and the clock runs out of time.

The Florida Gators escaped the rock fight with a 65-63 victory, and in an ironic twist of fate, it was the Gators defense that stole the game from Houston.

Congratulation to the Florida Gators on an exciting double-digit comeback to win the 2025 NCAA Men’s National Championship!!!!

Walter Clayton Jr got his first basket of the game, and it ties the game at 48. Florida has gone on a run as Houston now has 10+ fouls on them.

And then, Rueben Chinyelu fouled on J’Wan Roberts on a drive and slammed the ball into the ground for a technical foul. And the lead is back to 3.

And then Clayton gets the ball in the lane off the pick and roll and a pretty pass. He also makes the free throw and we are tied again with 7 to play.

Now I have a problem with how the referees called the first half.

Since they were letting people play, the teams decided to come out playing physical. And the referees have called 8 fouls (6 on Florida) in the first 4 minutes of the second half.

This includes a technical foul on the Florida bench erupting on a 2nd quick foul called on Will Richard (which was clearly a foul – but wasn’t a foul in the first half). LJ Cryer hit one of the two technical free throws, and then off the inbounds, hit a three pointer from the corner, and suddenly Houston is up 42-30.

I just don’t like that. It is not that the 6 fouls were called were wrong. They simply weren’t called in the first half. You can’t set the standard of what is a foul in the first half, and then change the definition in the second half. And while Houston has gotten the best of it so far after the technical foul, it is clearly impacting both teams (as Houston has gotten some touch fouls on them as well).

So as I looked at some articles this morning, I saw this headline by Nancy Armour from USA Today – Get with the times, NCAA – The women’s game still deserves better. Here is the link.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2025/04/07/ncaa-do-better-womens-basketball/82970115007

Nancy Armour basically keyed in on the same quotes from Geno Auriemma that I did. And she raised some great points that I would like to see.

She gave the NCAA some credit for their recent improvements such as awarding prize money in units to teams/conferences.

Her points about the contract the NCAA signed is on point – they lumped in everything else with women’s basketball, and it is a long contract going to 2032. It hinders the women’s game from really assessing what they are worth on their own.

And I loved the idea about domes. She is right that it is a horrible experience to watch a game in a dome. 68,252 fans filled the AlamoDome for Saturday’s Final Four. The women’s championship game filled Tampa’s Alamie Arena with 19,777 fans. Why not give them the chance to see how many seats they could sell in a dome? After all, more people tuned in to what South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes last year than people turning in to Connecticut beating my Boilers in the men’s championship.

But then Nancy Armour had this statement.

“And you cannot expect women’s players to accept inconveniences that you do not ask of the men.

UConn played in the last Elite Eight game, with its win over USC in Spokane ending about 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday. The Huskies tipped off again about 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday. The last Elite Eight men’s game, meanwhile, wrapped up about 8 p.m. last Sunday and the first Final Four game wasn’t until 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Auburn, the last team in, just had to go from Atlanta to San Antonio, too. Not clear cross country like UConn did.”

That is absolutely true. Except San Antonio is in the middle of the country. No one was going to have to fly cross-country.

Last year, Purdue had to fly from the Sunday afternoon game in Detroit to Glendale, Arizona – that is basically cross-country. And it wasn’t the last game of the Elite 8, but they made Connecticut fly from Boston to Glendale, Arizona – that certainly qualifies as cross-country.

We talk about making the game accessible to fans by not making them fly cross-country, but no one understands the math. By making it that no one flies cross-country, it means that Tampa and Glendale (or New York, Boston, Los Angeles or San Francisco) can simply not host a national championship. Otherwise, one of the regionals is going to have a long flight.

As we complain about the fact that UConn had to fly cross the country (and while I haven’t read anything defending them, UCLA had to as well – guess it is alright for a West Coast team to have to fly cross-country), let me remind everyone this. South Carolina and Texas had to make the short trip from Birmingham, Alabama to Tampa Bay, Florida. Not a single one of the men’s regionals were held that close to San Antonio.

I am all for giving the women’s game more equity – they deserve it. Those athletes are incredible and play fantastic basketball. I want to see them get the chance to take their game to a bigger stage. But lets leave the geography arguments out of the conversation. The only way to avoid anyone having a 5-6 hour flight is to force all the games in the midwest – and then everyone (but the midwest) gets a 3 hour flight instead.

If you are going to truly divide into regionals that split the country into 4 parts, and then rotate the final amongst those regions, then someone is going to have to fly cross-country whenever the final comes to the West or East coast. And there are too many major cities along the coasts to never have the championships there.

The women deserve a bigger stage. But the NCAA deciding to play some of the games on the West Coast is not taking the game away from fans.

So, I think the grader needs to re-evaluate his grading method. I came up with a complicated method Sunday night to grade everything based on the Vegas line. I felt that since there were no upsets, you couldn’t really grade based on if the favorites went as far as they were expected, because basically everyone went as far as they were expected.

So, I came up with a method that looks at how the teams did against the Vegas spread (thanks to my handicapping page, I have all the lines). I took all the results, and divided them into 5 equal groups (for A, B, C, D, and F). I then made some adjustments. Winning a game mattered. Winning a game you weren’t supposed to mattered more. Losing a game by less points than anyone else mattered (so for example, UConn lost to Florida by only 2 points in the Round of 32 which is better than Maryland (Sweet 16), Texas Tech (Elite 8) or Auburn (Final 4) – so they might have lost in the Round of 32 but they looked like a Final Four team in that game.

So, with an hour before the game, I started adding everything up. And thanks to the fact that they had no one worse than a C, the Big 10 would have won. That didn’t feel quite right either. Doesn’t feel right to say they were the best when none of their teams made the Final Four. So, I am now scrambling and making up the rules as I go.

SEC – A

• A teams (Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss)
• B teams (Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M)
• C teams (Oklahoma, Vanderbilt)
• D teams (Texas)
• F teams (Mississippi State, Georgia, Missouri)

With the most teams in the A category and 2 teams in the Final 4, they win the conference battle. And lets face it – Arkansas’s run was sadly the most exciting of the double digit seeds. It wasn’t all good – as they also had the most teams with an F. But with 14 teams, they would bound to have a few duds.

Big 12 – A-

• A teams (Houston, Arizona)
• B teams (Texas Tech, BYU)
• C teams (Baylor, Iowa State)
• F teams (Kansas)

With a team in the Final 4 and Arizona’s strong performance against the spread, I put them next. Quite honestly, this grade is really based on Houston’s amazing run. They were the team I thought was the most vulnerable #1 seed, and yet, they are still playing on Monday night when everyone else has fallen.

Big 10 – B+

• A teams (Michigan St, Purdue)
• B teams (UCLA, Oregon, Maryland)
• C teams (Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin)

I would argue that both the Spartans and Boilers exceeded expectations as they did very well against the Vegas lines. It might seem mean to give a Sweet 16 team like Michigan a C, but their best performance against the spread was actually their 3 point victory over UC-San Diego. No bad teams since every team won their first game, but can’t give an A without a team in the Final Four.

WCC – B

• A teams (Gonzaga)
• C teams (St. Mary’s)

To be fair, the WCC wasn’t supposed to make it far. But they both won their first round game and Gonzaga was competitive against Houston – so it was actually a pretty good tournament for the non-power conference

Big East – C

• A teams (Connecticut, Creighton)
• C teams (Xavier, St. John’s)
• F team (Marquette)

UConn had one of the best performances against Florida. And Creighton did really well against Auburn. With a bunch of 8/9 seeds, you aren’t supposed to get past the 2nd round. But St. John’s certainly was. And Marquette forgot to show up. Not getting a team into the second weekend gets you a C – even with two teams getting an A.

Mt West – C

• A teams (Colorado State, New Mexico)
• F teams (Utah State, San Diego State)

With two on the outstanding side of the rankings and two on the horrible side of the rankings, it felt like a C was the appropriate ranking. Colorado State and New Mexico saved the conference from a worse grade.

ACC – D

• A teams (Duke)
• B teams (North Carolina)
• F teams (Clemson, Louisville)

Here is the problem. Duke got an A because they made the Final Four. But Duke was supposed to win the entire tournament. Their collapse to Houston probably should make them a B. North Carolina got a B solely off destroying San Diego State in the First Four game. And Clemson and Louisville forgot to show up. This was not a good March for the ACC – so they get the worst grade of the power conferences.

One-bid conferences – F

• A teams (Robert Morris)
• B teams (Drake, McNeese, UNC-Wilmington, Alabama State)
• C teams (High Point, Montana, Norfolk St, St Francis, UC San Diego, Yale, Mt St Mary’s, Wofford)
• D teams (Akron, American, Grand Canyon, Liberty, Lipscomb, Omaha, Bryant, SIU-Edwardsville, Troy, VCU)
• F teams (Memphis)

Memphis was the best ranked team as the sole team from the American as a 5 seed, and they lost. Drake and McNeese did win their first games, but then disappeared in their second round games. But the biggest factor with this grade is that excluding Memphis losing, 10 other Cinderellas lost by more than 6 points compared to the spread (which is actually a lot – the Vegas lines tend to be pretty close).

Well, the game as tipped off, as Houston has an early 14-10 lead. As the announcers have said, the game so far is a rock fight – which is scenario 2 for the Lunatic. But there is still plenty of time.

So much to say – so little time. We have less than 2 hours until Florida and Houston tip off in San Antonio to play for the National Championship!!!!

Thanks to the rain, Charlie and I can not re-do Ball Don’t Lie. Which is probably for the best considering that the Ball was a horrible liar this year. When Charlie won for Auburn and I won for Duke, our championship game was doomed. The Ball went 0-3 when Charlie’s massive domination over me in 21 implying that Auburn would win tonight was ridiculously wrong. I probably should thank the rain so I don’t have to watch Charlie destroy me a second time in basketball as I wheeze and almost pass out from the small amount of running that I would have to do.

But I feel like I do have to say something about the game before I rant about the articles that I have been reading about. Or maybe I still have time to grade the conferences. Who knows where the Lunatic will go – since he currently doesn’t.

I already mentioned my sadness about the coaches. Apparently, I am not the only person who can not forgive Kelvin Sampson for his recruiting past since I saw a few stories that made sure to mention his disaster at Indiana. I want to be excited about the game – so I can’t let myself go down that road.

So I will use this as a chance to call out my successful handicapping for the season. Because it brings up some interesting thoughts. Going into the Final Four, I was up $47 (thanks to being up huge on the over/under – as all of you would expect). At that time, I decided I was playing with house money and so was going to bet my max on all the remaining bets.

Sure enough, I got Florida right and the over wrong in the first game. And then got the over right and Duke wrong in the second game – as I watched the Blue Devils collapse. So, while I thought I would be locked tonight, I find myself up $41 going in to the final.

Then, I thought about it. It has been a rough March. Boilers lost in heart-breaking fashion, no Cinderella got past the first weekend, Houston ruined my chance to claim I got the championship game correct – in fact, other than Cinderella, Houston has been killing me softly with its aggressive defense.

The realization came to me that no matter what I do, if I bet the max, Houston would figure out a way to cause me to lose my last chance of winning in March. If I pick them, they will get trounced. If I pick against them, they probably score the last 20 points of the game to beat Florida. It might be only imaginary money at the Lunatic Casino, but it would be one last way for the Cougars to sink their teeth into me and chew me up.

Then, I realized I only have one choice. I have to learn from the Duke collapse. I can complain about the bad call on Flagg. I can complain about the fouling on out-of-bounds play. But Houston didn’t hack the Blue Devils for the entire last 10 minutes. All the most efficient offense in college basketball had to do was score more than 1 field goal over a 10 minute span, and they probably make the lead too much to overcome.

There was even a funny quote I saw (although based on some things I have been seeing, I don’t know that I can trust that it wasn’t simply an AI generated piece of garbage). Someone was telling Kelvin Sampson as he was walking in the tunnel that his Cougars had just made the largest comeback in Final Four history, and he asked how far they were down. The person informed him they were down 14, and Sampson without missing a beat said, “Thank God it wasn’t 17.”

Duke had the chance to put this game away before any heroics could happen, and they simply couldn’t. And so the Lunatic is learning his lesson. I can play with the Lunatic Casino’s money and not lose. Betting my $20 bet for both means that I can’t leave the Lunatic Casino Sportsbook with anything less than a $1 victory, and hopefully another comp at the Lunatic Casino Buffet – fantastic imaginary prime rib.

So here are my thoughts of what will happen tonight. Obviously, there are countless numbers of outcomes – from massive comebacks to close games to complete blowouts. In my mind, there are three most likely outcomes.

• Florida learns from the Duke Blue Devils, and they speed the game up in a way that only the Gators can. While they might turn the ball over more often than they are used to and the game might get sloppy, a fast paced game is the only way to beat the Cougars. Get more possessions so that you can take advantage of the times that you will go on a run – since you can expect Houston will have a run where they stop you 4-5 times. Let Walter Clayton Jr do what he does – hit big shots when he is closely covered, and let him carry you to a victory. In this scenario, Florida wins, covers the -1, and the game total goes over 141.
• Since it is hard to do, as much as Florida wants to speed the game up, Houston turns the game into a complete slog, struggling to get their offense set up until the last 10 seconds of the shot clock, and then harassing the Gators relentlessly causing them not to get good shots. It becomes a game where the first team to 60 wins, and when that happens, Houston always seems to be that team. Remember the Cougars holding Tennessee to 50 points – it is a replay of that game. In this scenario, Houston wins and the game doesn’t get close to 141.
• After the Duke game and some of the criticism on the weak call on Cooper Flagg, the referees decide that they are not going to allow the game to get out of hand. And everything becomes a foul. The Gators foul the Cougars. Then the Cougars foul the Gators. It becomes the longest game in NCAA history because all that happens is the players keep going to the free throw line. It becomes unbearable to watch as there is no flow to the game. But eventually, Florida starts to pull away because of the two teams likely to adjust to the game being called tight, the Gators will pull back first and take advantage of the horrible foul trouble for the Cougars. Florida wins the game, and covers the over thanks to all the free throws that they hit with the clock stopped.

So, I have the result that would probably make me happiest (a fun, fast-paced game with lots of scoring), the result that I could tolerate but would prefer it not to be (a slow, physical defensive game where no one can score), or the result that would make me miserable (the referees destroying the game and making me stay up so late that I go delusional).

If my scenarios are right, two of the three scenarios say take Florida and the over. By the way, there are only two realistic choices – you either pick Florida and the over, or you pick Houston and the under – otherwise, you are just giving the Sportsbook the Vig for when you win one bet and lose the other. But I digress….

I will take Florida and the over, knowing that the worst thing that can happen is that I will win by $1. No matter how badly Houston wants to beat me, I will at least walk away with my Handicapping victory! I am going to pick Florida to win based on my first scenario – since that will be a fun game to watch. I am nervous with the way that March has gone, I will be watching the third scenario.

So – there is the Lunatic’s handicapping of the game. No using a random basketball. No coming up with any solid handicapping like Clayton will be unstoppable off the drive on offense, while Cryer will go cold from the field. Simply thinking of the most likely scenarios, thinking of the one he least wants to see, and figure that is the one that will happen.

Lets hope that March proves him wrong and we have a fun, exciting game between the Big 12 champion and SEC tournament champion.

There would be no second half comebacks. There would only be pure domination. Lots was made about this being Paige Bueckers last chance to win a championship, and she certainly had a nice game with 17 points.

But the best player on the court might have been UConn’s freshman Sarah Strong. Strong finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists. Her 114 points in the tournament was the most points scored by a freshman in NCAA Tournament history.

Add in senior Azzi Fudd’s 24 points and the Big 3 players for the Huskies simply ran away with this National Championship game as the Huskies won 82-59.

This is UConn’s and Geno Auriemma’s 12th championship, and despite all their Final Fours, this is the first time they have broken through since 2016. Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies – the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champions.

South Carolina’s Chloe Kitts drew two quick fouls on Huskie’s Jana El Alfy, forcing the UConn starter to sit with four fouls. But Azzi Fudd made a layup off a nice drive and a jumper, and then made a great pass into Sarah Strong for another basket in the paint, and the Huskies extended their lead to 15. MiLaysia Fulwiley tried to get South Carolina back into the game as she made a nice jumper and then stole the ball and passed it up court to Sania Feagin for a layup.

But the Huskies would stop the run. Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong hit back to back three-pointers and Paige Bueckers hit a couple of free throws and the lead grew to 18 points. By the end of the third quarter based on some free throws, the Huskies have a 20 point lead.

Connecticut is 10 minutes away from a National Championship – they simply need to keep up their current intensity to hold onto their huge lead.

It is my typical operation to blog about each half during these final games. I only have so much more that I can blog about – and so I want to honor these athletes as much as I can before the weekend is over.

Of course, I mentioned how great Auburn and Duke were doing at halftime, only to watch Florida and Houston come back to make the championship game. But I will risk the chance that I am a jinx. The blog must have content!!!

South Carolina started off with an 11-8 lead in perfect fashion for their team as four different players scored. But Azzi Fudd made multiple baskets for the Huskies to lead them to a 19-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

A big moment in the second quarter was the South Carolina leading scorer Joyce Edwards picked up a second foul on a Paige Bueckers shot and ended up sitting the rest of the half. Bueckers hit both free throws to increase the lead to 7. The lead would stay around there until the end of the half when Ashlynn Shade hit a three-pointer to give the Huskies a 36-26 halftime lead.

Azzi Fudd had 13 points, Sarah Strong had 8, and Paige Bueckers had 8 to lead the Huskies, while Joyce Edwards and Tessa Johnson had 5 points each from the bench to be the leading scorers of the balanced South Carolina team.