I think so. Here are the nominees:

2021 Gonzaga/UCLA Final Four Electric back and forth game into overtime, UCLA hits big shot to tie, then Suggs from Evansville to win it. Tough to argue against this one…except that Baylor dominated Gonzaga two days later, and certainly would have done the same thing to UCLA, so maybe the stakes weren’t as high as we thought at the time.

2022 Kentucky/St. Peter’s First Round This is March! A trendy title pick with a national player of the year gets bounced by a random New Jersey college that no one could point out on a map. Doug Edert instant star turn. Beginning of the end for Cal. Kentucky looks like they’re going to survive and then they don’t.

2022 Baylor/UNC Second Round A vaunted Baylor team defending its title against UNC, with a bunch of guys (including a coach) who hadn’t yet proven anything at all. Heels jump out to a huge lead, fritter it away in regulation, then complete the upset in overtime. Not much more you can ask for in a first weekend game.

2022 Duke/UNC Final Four Not an extremely excellently played game, but the stakes were off the charts. The biggest CBB rivalry, an ignominious send off for the winningest CBB coach, and the game was in the balance with 30 seconds to go. I don’t know about “best,” but it’s gotta be “biggest implications.”

2022 Kansas/UNC Title Game Not as thrilling as the other games on this list, but bonus points for being a game that decided the championship. Kansas got some heroic performances to salt it away.

2023 Purdue/Fairleigh Dickinson First Round 16 over 1 belongs on this list. But it wasn’t like the UMBC game where you had time to accept it as the clock wound down. No. This one didn’t feel real until 20 minutes after it was over. I was in my living room saying, “no…they can’t possibly lose to…they have a nephilim on their team…”

2023 Kansas State/Michigan State Sweet 16 I think this games been forgotten a bit and wanted to shout it out. Crazy shotmaking from both teams, and an NCAA tournament record 19 assists from March legend Markquis Nowell.

2023 San Diego State/FAU Final Four Final Four buzzer beater to reverse the outcome and send one school to their first ever championship game. These were two good teams, but they weren’t of the caliber of some of the teams on this list, and I think most people knew that UConn would dispatch whoever got through.

2025 Duke/Houston Final Four We all know what we just watched, right? Those were two extraordinary teams. Most years, either one of them is a title favorite. Houston is out of sorts all first half and somehow finishes the half down only 6. Duke plays great for the first 30 minutes—everybody on the team contributing, making huge plays. Flagg, the player of the year, is awesome. Houston fights all night but can’t close the gap all the way. Then, with a minute left, the pressure turns up a little more on Duke, and Houston takes advantage of every mistake, hits every free throw, and improbably wins. King Kong vs. Godzilla and the winner had to pull out every possible stop to win. A game that plodded along early turned into one of the classics. Wow. I need to be hosed down.

Which game was the best to you? I can only list 6, so I’m picking what I think are the top 5 of the ones I listed, and you can vote for “other” and comment!

I’m a relatively new basketball fan.

My friend is a die-hard Duke fan, so I’ve been following them this season. After the loss to Houston last night, I realized that every comment about Duke has been people just brutally dumping on them. Can someone explain to me why they’re so hated? Whenever I ask, people tend not to have a great answer as to why they hate them….they “just do”.

I am genuinely unsurprised by the loss. I continue to believe the team is very good, and definitely could have won the championship. In 1,000 simulations, they may even win a majority of the time. But anyone who watched this team all season was aware of the weaknesses that were on display last night.

First, Jon Scheyer struggles as a game manager, especially in close, late game situations. I don't want to pile on Scheyer here, because I genuinely believe he is a very good coach and is only getting better. He clearly knows how to coach a tremendous defense, and this season he showed a lot of improvement in coaching a half-court offense (having a superteam probably helped with that). But he needs to get better at managing close games. The fact that Duke blew out many of its regular season opponents--and therefore had little practice in tight late game situations--is probably partially to blame. But there is no excuse for the team being totally unprepared for a tough inbounds play. If they were just able to inbound the ball effectively, they would be playing on Monday.

Second, Cooper Flagg isn't clutch. Or at least, he hasn't yet shown the capacity to be clutch. Don't get me wrong, he's an amazing special prospect that should undeniably go first in the NBA draft and will probably be a superstar in the near future. But almost every late game situation for Duke this season resulted in the same thing: a Cooper Flagg iso ball play where he blows it. This is related to the first point. You'd think maybe Scheyer would learn and run a set play to end the game, instead of just putting it in Cooper's hands and crossing his fingers. In fairness, it's hard to blame Scheyer for this. Flagg does have a capacity to make magic happen. Just not at the end of the game with the game on the line. In that situation, he repeatedly proved that he cannot get it done.

Third, if your veteran guard and team leader cannot hit the critical free throws at the end of the game, you're not a championship team. Make no mistake: I love Tyrese Proctor. He put together so many special moments for this team this year. But it needs to be said. If he sinks the free throws at the end of the game, Duke is playing on Monday. When he missed that first shot in the 1-and-1, that was really the turning point. Even if Flagg didn't get called for the over-the-back (which was a bad call), Houston had the advantage at that point, and was probably going to win.

In any event, any real Duke fan was wise enough not to buy the hype that this team was just going to steamroll everyone on their way to a championship. This team was not like UConn. It had weak spots all year, and for it to end like this is not surprising at all.

A back and forth absolute war in game 1 with stars throwing haymakers all over the court, and in game 2 the talent filled young team that hadn’t been put in situations where they needed to close out games faced that and didn’t live up to it, while the team that lives on grit and finding a way to win somehow found a way once again. Has there been a better 2 games in history?

Schools that take you all the way there just to let you down. I’m thinking of a few in mind but I’m wondering you guys think

please help me!Can someone help me or tell me a website for watching the NCAA championship, like a free website

Would you consider this as THE best final four ever. Both Florida/Auburn and Houston/Duke created spectacular games.

If not, what other Final fours produced similar if not better spectacles?

Both were born on third base but ryan just recently scored how long will it take jon to bring a natty.

Imagine not making the championship game with several future NBA players on the roster!

1. Missed the inbound pass and allowed the shorter Mylik Wilson tip the ball to Houston.

2. Missed the rebound and allowed Joseph Tugler to dunk the ball to bring the game within 1.

3. Missed the shot after the timeout to potentially take the lead.

4. Missed the inbound pass and allowed the shorter LJ Cryer to tip the ball away.

I’m not trying to beat up on Flagg and act like he’s not a generational player, and I know everyone wants to talk about the terrible foul call. But there were opportunities for him to seal the game for Duke. Also, let’s give credit to the tight Houston defense.

Duke got slapped in the face late and they didn’t know how to react. Their inexperience in tight late game situations cost them the game. And their conditioning showed that as well, they were tired.

I know kenpom is not comparable year to year. BUT, in this title run they would have always played the highest seed possible. And on their path they had 1. 8 seed Gonzaga who is 8th in kenpom 2. 15th in kenpom Purdue, played in Indy 3. 5th in kenpom Tennessee 4. The highest rated kenpom team ever in Duke. 5. and Possibly 3rd in kenpom Florida

You could also add winning the big12 tourney in this run as well.

Thoughts, or anyone know of better title runs?

Title

For me prob UNC vs Duke

No disrespect to Houston, but I'm a firm believer that Houston winning is a huge fluke and robs Duke of truly accomplishing what their capable of. I've spent the last day in pure disbelief and it just doesn't make sense to me. I've spent the entire regular season watching Duke be #1 in KenPom and it's just not fair.

If Duke loses again I will face that Houston deserved the win, but I am just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to Duke and the NCAA.

Is there any info/update on who Villanova is targeting or close to signing in the portal?

The first round, second round, Sweet 16, and Elite 8 rounds for the women are 1 day after the men's games.

But the Final Four and National Championship rounds for the women are both 1 day before the men.

Why is this? It seems really weird to me.

How will people remember this game?

Coop is a super talent but his legs were gone by the games end. Kon should’ve been given the rock more down the stretch unfortunately just like most our close games this year we reverted to coop hero ball and allowed Houston to snatch this game. Not only is Kon a great shooter but he is also an underrated playmaker who would’ve made the right play if he collapsed the defense I hate how he was not more involved down the stretch. Beyond coop being tired, it was a disaster class from proctor and James was rattled after that hard hit to the floor he took.