Billy Holmes ’25
Staff Writer
The 2024-2025 Men’s College Basketball season has come to an end and it is definitely safe to say that it concluded in thrilling fashion! The national championship game took place on Monday, April 7 between the Florida Gators and Houston Cougars and it was an absolute battle from start to finish. For the majority of the night, it looked like Houston was destined for glory as they used their physicality and intensity to capitalize on their offensive opportunities and deter the Gators’ offense. However, the Gators would not go away and despite trailing by double digits with less than 14 minutes left in the contest, Florida remained resilient and looked to bounce back.
Led by Senior shooting guard Will Richard’s tremendous first half performance and March Madness star Walter Clayton Jr., who struggled mightily in the first half, bouncing back in the second half, the Gators held strong and eventually took the lead with 46 seconds remaining. With the game on the line, Houston’s offense completely fell apart and that culminated in them not being able to get a shot off with 6 seconds on the clock, which allowed Florida to win their third NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. To go along with the victory, Walter Clayton Jr. took home the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award and at 39 years, Florida’s head coach Todd Golden became the youngest men’s coach to win March Madness since Jim Velvano coached North Carolina State to March Madness glory in 1983.
Although only one team can be crowned national champions at the season’s end, there was plenty of success from a bunch of different teams throughout this college basketball season. Florida, Houston, Duke and Auburn all made it to the final four which meant the four #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament were the final four teams standing for the first time since 2008. Duke’s Cooper Flagg took home several awards and honors for his tremendous Freshman campaign including National College Player of the Year and First Team All-American. Flagg is the odds on favorite to be selected first overall in the NBA draft in late June. Despite Flagg’s phenomenal season, the Blue Devils were far from a one man wrecking crew. Freshman guard Kon Knueppel (14.4 PPG and 40.6 3P%), Junior guard Tyrese Proctor (12.4 PPG and 45 FG%) and Khaman Malauch all had strong campaigns to assist Duke to their 35-4 record.
Although the Auburn Tigers might not have possessed the eye-popping star power that a team such as Duke possessed, their consistency and cohesiveness as a team took them incredibly far. Head coach Bruce Pearl took home SEC Coach of the Year honors and five players on the team averaged double figures. Throughout the season, Senior forward Johni Broome was the team’s best player as he finished the year averaging 18.6 PPG and 10.8 RPG. Broome will likely be preparing for an NBA career as most mock drafts have him slotted as a late first to early second round draft selection. Despite falling short of their ultimate goal, Duke and Auburn will look to use the seasons they had this season as building blocks to reach their ultimate goal next season.
One of the hottest topics in college basketball in recent years has been the changes made to the transfer portal. Up until last college basketball season, the rules centering around players switching teams was quite strict. For example, in the past when a player looked to transfer, they would typically have to sit out a year and lose a year of their eligibility before being able to suit up for their new team. However, due to the rule changes regarding transfers which were implemented last season, players are able to play for their new teams immediately which has caused the transfer portal in college basketball to be deemed as free agency within the college ranks.
When looking at this past college basketball season, there were several examples of players heading to different programs and contributing heavily to their team’s success. Following a tremendous four year career at Florida Atlantic, guard Johnell Davis ended up at Arkansas this season and was a key contributor to their resurgence within the college basketball landscape under coach John Calipari.
One of the other major benefits of the transfer portal is the ability for players from smaller schools to have a chance to prove themselves at their original destination and then transfer to a program in a more competitive, prestigious conference. A perfect example of this can be seen in the case of Zeke Mayo. Mayo played the first 3 seasons of his collegiate career in the Summit League conference for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits before transferring to the Kansas Jayhawks this past season to play against Big 12 competition. As a Jayhawk this season, Mayo averaged 14.6 PPG, 4.8 RPG and 2.9 APG to help Kansas achieve a 21-13 record on the year.
Looking towards the future, it is clear that the transfer portal is going to continue to be a vital part of college basketball, but some questions still remain. Is it realistic for teams to try and use the portal to make complete roster overhauls or is the best strategy to lock in on 1 or 2 targets to to fulfill specific needs depending on a team’s situation. Ultimately, only time will tell. Overall this season of college basketball was one defined by a combination of both dominance and surprises which is one of the main reasons why fans will be eagerly waiting for the season to start back up in the fall!
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
Web Edited by Zexuan Qu
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