2025 March Madness second round predictions: Florida vs. UConn, Duke vs. Baylor
What do we do tomorrow?The Huskies’ quest for a three-peat will end, but not without a fight.The Gators, a trendy pick to take the championship torch, aren’t likely to cruise through the field with a head coach (Todd Golden) who won his first tournament game two days ago.
UConn will slow the tempo, leaning on Alex Karaban’s experience.Dan Hurley, the winner of 13 straight NCAA Tournament games, will get the most out of his roster, relishing the rare role of a massive underdog.
“I feel like in a weird way it’s a little pressure off of us going into the tournament where we could just go out and let it rip right now,” Hurley said this week.“We don’t have this huge pressure of expectations.”It’s a big number, but it’s warranted.
The top-seeded Blue Devils have one loss since November, having gone 22-12 against the spread as a favorite.The Bears, who are 3-7-2 against the number as an underdog, haven’t fared well against elite competition this season, suffering 10 losses against ranked teams, with six coming by double digits.
Baylor squeaked past Mississippi State by dominating the boards.That won’t be an option against Duke, which owns the nation’s seventh-best rebounding rate.
Plus, Cooper Flagg is 100 percent.The Carmelo Anthony remix may be upon us.The Rams have been impressive, winning 11 straight games, but it has largely been quantity over quality.
Eight of the wins came against non-tournament teams, while another two came against 10-seed Utah State, which was blasted in the first round by UCLA.Maryland will be the seventh top 10 defense Colorado State has faced this season.
The Rams lost five of those previous matchups by an average of more than 13 points.The Terps big men (future first-round pick Derik Queen and senior Julian Reese) should feast against the undersized Rams, who have no regular rotation player taller than 6-foot-8.Tommy Lloyd’s track record doesn’t bode well for the Wildcats, who have been victim to far gre...