Men’s Elite Eight winners, losers: No. 1s reach Final Four

Duke and Florida punched their tickets to San Antonio on Saturday.

With half of the men’s 2025 Final Four set, here are the day’s winners and losers.

Winner: Duke’s defense

With the Crimson Tide and Blue Devils each coming off 100-point games, we were prepared for offensive fireworks in the East Regional final. Instead, Duke’s masterful defensive performance bottled the Tide and kept the final score well below pre-game total point predictions.

Alabama (28-9) had a five-minute, 16-second scoring drought in the second half while No. 1 Duke (35-3) went on a 13-0 run, turning a seven-point lead into a 20-point blowout in an 85-65 win. 

The Tide, which entered Saturday No. 1 in the country in scoring (91.4 points per game), shot 35.4 percent, its lowest in the NCAA Tournament in program history and the worst under head coach Nate Oats since January 2022.

The Blue Devils are a machine on offense, shooting at least 50 percent in all four of their 2025 NCAA Tournament wins, tied for the second-most in a single March Madness in program history.

After clamping down on Alabama defensively, Duke should be considered the favorite to cut down the nets in San Antonio.

Loser: SEC’s run at history

The SEC entered Saturday with a chance of breaking the Big East’s longstanding record for most teams from one conference to reach the Final Four (three), which the Big East set in 1985, the first year of the tournament’s expansion to 64 teams.

Alabama’s loss to Duke snuffed out that possibility, leaving the SEC having to settle for potentially tying the record with wins on Sunday by South Region No. 1 Auburn (31-5) and Midwest No. 2 Tennessee (30-7).

Winner: Florida forward Walter Clayton Jr.

Florida’s best player came through when his team needed him most. After a quiet first half, Clayton Jr. responded with several big makes in the second to propel the Gators to their first Final Four since 2014.

”We did it together,” Clayton said after the game, deferring to his teammates. But make no mistake. Florida wouldn’t have won the West Region without Clayton.

The 2024-25 consensus All-American scored 22 of his 30 points in the second half as No. 1 Florida (34-4) erased a nine-point deficit with under four minutes remaining.

Things looked bleak for the Gators, but then Clayton took over. It was a special performance, and if Florida wins two more games, it will forever be immortalized in Gainesville.

Loser: Texas Tech’s three-point fortune

The three-point gods looked down at the Red Raiders on Saturday and frowned. After No. 3 Texas Tech built a 10-point lead, 71-61, with six minutes remaining, Florida went 5-of-7 from deep and took a 78-77 advantage.