Top 3 Elite 8 Takeaways (Mar. 30 2025)

The Big 12 Conference had one team playing in the Elite Eight of the men’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

Sunday’s Elite Eight Results

No. 1 Houston 69, No. 2 Tennessee 50

Here are three takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.

COUGAR INEVITABILITY

There are many ways to define and explain what Houston did to Tennessee on Sunday. The Cougars winning wasn’t unexpected. I wasn’t even surprised by how — defense. But this particular nugget of information knocked me out.

Tennessee’s 15 first-half points are the lowest in NCAA Tournament history by a team with a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

Lowest not just in an Elite Eight game — lowest in any round of the tournament. Ever.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 30, 2025

To be clear, this tournament has been played since 1939. That’s more than 80 years. Go back to that 1939 Tournament and Oregon beat Ohio State to win the title, 46-33.

Divide Oregon’s winning score by half and you get 23 points. Divide Ohio State’s score in half and you get 16.5 points. I have no idea what either scored in the first half because I couldn’t find a box score.

Tennessee scored 1.5 points fewer than half of Ohio State’s losing point total in the 1939 NCAA title game. Basketball has come a long way since that tournament. And the Vols scored 15 points in 20 minutes in a game with a 3-point line and a 30-second shot clock.

Norlander later pointed out that the fewest points in an Elite Eight game is 39 by San Francisco in 1973 and Marquette in 2013.

That first half was a generational beat-down. The Vols never recovered, though they tried to make it interesting in the second half. But you can’t do that when you only shoot 28.8% from the floor.

I’ve felt like Houston was going to get to the Final Four for about two months now. I thought Texas Tech had the goods to join them, maybe Iowa State. But Houston? I just had a feeling they had what it took.

So, the Cougars will stand alone in the Final Four for the Big 12.

CRYER’S SWAN SONG

L.J. Cryer could have gone to the NBA last season. No one would have blamed him. Four years of college basketball, a national title at Baylor and he returned to help his hometown college team win the Big 12 regular season title in his first year with the program.

But like a lot of Cougars that could have gone to the NBA, he stayed. He had unfinished business.

That’s what this season has felt like for Houston. They were just two injury-ravaged to get the job done last year and they still reached the Sweet 16.

This season has been like a checklist.

Prove that last season wasn’t a fluke by winning the regular season and conference tournament? Check the box.

Prove that your style of play translates to a tournament where the whistles get tighter and the games get harder to win? Check the box.

Cement Houston’s return to national relevancy as a power conference basketball program? Check the box.

Cryer may end up being one of the most decorated Big 12 players ever. If Houston wins the national title, he’ll become a two-time national champion with two different Big 12 programs. Who has done that? Has anyone done that?

He was key on Sunday, of course. He finished with 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out four steals. His evolution as a defender has been fun to watch.

If anyone is going to grab the spotlight on the big stage in San Antonio next week, it’ll be him.