Half of this year’s Sweet 16 is set. Saturday was another day of mostly chalk in the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament, with one notable exception.
Here are the winners and losers from Saturday’s Round of 32 action.
Winner: Arkansas head coach John Calipari
For the first time since 2019, Calipari is headed to the Sweet 16. The Hall of Fame head coach had a rocky first season in Arkansas, which began 0-5 in SEC play, but he’s headed to a familiar destination after an upset 75-66 win over West Region No. 2 St. John’s.
It’s Calipari’s 16th trip to the regional semifinal in his 33-year college coaching career, which began at UMass (1988-96) and also included stints at Memphis (2000-09) and Kentucky (2009-24).
Calipari suffered multiple ignominious early exits in his final seasons in Lexington, including two first-round losses in 2022 and 2024 as a top-three seed. It only took him one season at Arkansas to rediscover his mojo, which could be bad news for the rest of the field.
Loser: Mid-majors
This has been a tournament to forget for those outside of the power conferences. On Saturday, McNeese, Drake and Gonzaga (a mid-major in conference only) lost to power conference opponents by wide margins. That followed an opening round where power conferences went 20-5 against mid-majors, with their 20 wins by an average of 21.5 points.
Midwest Region No. 12-seed McNeese set an ominous tone for the day with a 76-62 loss to No. 4 Purdue, trailing by as many as 26. West Region No. 11 Drake kept closer pace against No. 3 Texas Tech, yet it led to nearly the same result as McNeese, losing 77-64.
Even Midwest No. 1 Houston never trailed against perennial national power No. 8 Gonzaga in an 81-76 win.
Entering Sunday, Saint Mary’s (West Coast), Colorado State and New Mexico (Mountain West) are the only three mid-majors left of the 24 remaining teams.
Winner: Big 12
The conference went a perfect 3-0 on Saturday, with Houston and Texas advancing to the Sweet 16 along with East Region No. 6 BYU, which defeated No. 3 Wisconsin, 91-89.
That’s already an improvement over last season when only two of the conference’s eight NCAA Tournament teams reached the second weekend. In recent seasons, the Big 12 has had a valid claim to being men’s college basketball’s best conference, and it’s playing like it this year.
Loser: Close games
At least Wisconsin and Gonzaga understood the assignment. But besides BYU’s narrow escape and Gonzaga’s late rally, Saturday’s action was light on drama. An average of 11.5 points decided the other six games.
The average margin of victory of this year’s first-round games was 16.7 points, the largest ever for the Round of 64, and things only got marginally tighter in the Round of 32’s first eight games.
