No Texas squad has made the Final Four when San Antonio is the host city. Will that change in 2025?
SAN ANTONIO — Spring has sprung, which means Fiesta isn’t too far away for San Antonio. But the city is getting an early taste of the party atmosphere with the return of the Final Four, which takes over the Alamodome in the first weekend of April.
This is the first Final Four hosted by the Alamo City since 2021, and the first men’s Final Four here since Villanova defeated Michigan in 2018. Come April 4, March Madness fever will fully take over downtown—making San Antonio the most sought-after destination in sports over the coming weeks.
Five Texas squads started March dreaming of that short road trip and game action at the 36,000-seat Alamodome. Just two – Houston and Texas Tech – are still alive after making it to the Sweet 16.
If they want to punch their tickets to San Antonio, the Cougars and Red Raiders will need to overcome the history working against them: No team from the Lone Star State has ever made the men’s Final Four when hosted by San Antonio. The last time a Texas team made the Final Four at all was 2021, when the Baylor Bears won it all over Gonzaga.
Will the streak be broken this year? We’ll be tracking each team’s progress as they vie to punch their ticket to the Alamodome.
No. 1 seed Houston (Midwest Region)
- Round of 64: Houston 78, SIU Edwardsville 40
- Round of 32: Houston 81, Gonzaga 76
- Sweet 16: Houston vs. 4-seed Purdue, 9:09 p.m. Friday (TBS/truTV)
LJ Cryer matched a career high with 30 points, including two free throws with 14.2 seconds left, and No. 1 seed Houston held on to beat eighth-seeded Gonzaga 81-76 on Saturday night to reach the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight NCAA Tournament.
J’Wan Roberts added 18 points and Milos Uzan made two last free throws with 2.1 seconds left, giving the Cougars (32-4) their 15th consecutive win and pushing them into a regional semifinal against No. 4 seed Purdue on Friday night in Indianapolis.
Houston also ended Gonzaga’s run of nine straight Sweet 16s, which had been the longest active streak in the nation.
“It’s not just winning the game,” Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. “It’s beating a great program like Gonzaga.”
The Bulldogs (26-9) trailed 76-67 with just over 2 minutes to go when Graham Ike made two free throws to start their comeback bid, and most of it wound up coming at the foul line. And when Uzan turned the ball over and Khalif Battle made two free throws of his own, the Bulldogs had pulled to 77-76 with 21 seconds remaining.
Houston got the ball to Cryer, who was fouled, and he made both of his free throws to extend the lead. At the other end, Ja’Vier Francis stuffed Battle’s tying 3-point try from the corner, and Uzan knocked down his foul shots to seal the win.
“Gonzaga is as good as anyone we’ve played all year,” Sampson said. “Had they been seeded somewhere else, that’s a team that could have had a chance to get to the Elite Eight, or maybe the Final Four. They’re that good.”
Next for Houston is a date with the Boilermakers, who have won each of their first two tourney matchups by double-digits and are looking to get back to the title game after coming just short of glory last year.
No. 3 seed Texas Tech (West Region)
- Round of 64: Texas Tech 82, North Carolina Wilmington 72
- Round of 32: Texas Tech 77, Drake 64
- Sweet 16: Texas Tech vs. 10-seed Arkansas, 9:09 p.m. Thursday (TBS/truTV)
Darrion Williams scored a season-high 28 points, JT Toppin had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 3 seed Texas Tech dominated No. 11 seed Drake in the paint on its way to a 77-64 victory Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Elijah Hawkins added 16 points for the Red Raiders (27-8), who denied the Bulldogs their first Sweet 16 trip in more than five decades and will play No. 10 seed Arkansas in the West Region semifinals Thursday night in San Francisco.
“Our guys were so composed and so tough,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said, “and that was a huge part of the win.”
Texas Tech survived the opening weekend without Chance McMillian, its third-leading scorer. The hope is that his upper-body injury is sufficiently healed to play in the Sweet 16.
The Red Raiders will play John Calipari’s Razorbacks for a spot in the Elite Eight.
In the first game, against UNC Wilmington, Kerwin Walton scored a career-high 27 points and No. 3 seed Texas Tech attempted an NCAA Tournament-record 46 3-pointers in an 82-72 victory over No. 14 seed UNC Wilmington on Thursday night.
The Red Raiders raced to a 16-point lead, lost most of it by going cold in the final 6 1/2 minutes of the first half and then made enough plays down the stretch to recover after the Seahawks went ahead with about 14 minutes remaining.
Texas Tech (26-8) finished 13 for 46 behind the arc, breaking the tournament record of 43 attempts by Saint Joseph’s in a 1997 second-round game against Boston College. The 46 3s also set a school record.
“I felt like our grit and fight really showed late in the game,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “We felt like we’d have to win on the glass and play 50-50 basketball in order to give us a chance to win.
No. 4 seed Texas A&M (South Region / ELIMINATED)
- Round of 64: Texas A&M 80, No. 13 seed Yale 71
- Round of 32: Texas A&M 79, No. 5 seed Michigan 91
Michigan is going back to the Sweet 16 a year after a 24-loss season, using Roddy Gayle’s surge and a surprising advantage on the boards to trounce Texas A&M 91-79 on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament.
Gayle scored 21 of his season-high 26 points in the second half to help the restocked Wolverines overcome a 10-point deficit and advance to Atlanta to face Auburn in the South Region.
They got there by beating the Aggies at their own game.
No. 4 seed Texas A&M entered the day as the nation’s top offensive rebounding team, but the fifth-seeded Wolverines pulled down 16 offensive boards to the Aggies’ 15 and they outrebounded them 48-39 overall.
“Just a mindset,” said Michigan center Vladislav Goldin, who followed coach Dusty May over from FAU a year ago. “If we know what they do, we will have to adjust it and have the same physicality.”
Goldin had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Michigan (27-9) overcame another big day for Pharrel Payne. The big man led Texas A&M with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, but he was shut out after his basket put the Aggies ahead 65-61 with 9:59 left.
“It’s hard to shut someone down completely, and he’s obviously a great player,” Goldin said. “And we just decided we would have to make him finish tough shots, we would have to put (pressure) on him every single time and basically hope he’s going to miss because sometimes that’s all you can do.”
No. 9 seed Baylor (East / ELIMINATED)
- Round of 64: Baylor 75, No. 8 seed Mississippi State 72
- Round of 32: Baylor 66, Duke 89
Tyrese Proctor couldn’t miss. And top-seeded Duke showed the toughness to push back when pushed.
Proctor had career highs of seven 3-pointers and 25 points to continue his recent tear, helping Duke beat Baylor 89-66 on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Freshman star Cooper Flagg had 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Blue Devils (33-3), the East Region headliners who faced little drama in two home-state wins to secure a spot in the Sweet 16.
“For us to win by this margin, I think this speaks to the level of killer instinct that our guys have, the competitiveness and the connectivity,” coach Jon Scheyer said.
Duke will face Arizona in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Newark, New Jersey.
Proctor, a junior, made 7 of 8 3-pointers — his third straight game with at least six 3s and an abrupt turnaround after going 0 for 10 in his first two Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament games. He made 9 of 10 shots overall Sunday.
“I think it’s just my preparation, just behind the scenes putting in the work and trusting myself,” Proctor said.
Duke shot 64.4% to set a program record for a tournament game, hit 12 3-pointers and turned it over just six times.
“You look at it and the analytics showed they didn’t have any weaknesses,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said, adding: “They’re blessed because they have size and length and skill.”
Freshman V.J. Edgecombe scored 16 points for the ninth-seeded Bears (20-15), who haven’t reached the tournament’s second weekend since Drew’s team won it all in the Indianapolis bubble in 2021.