The upshot to a chalky 2025 NCAA Tournament is the historic nature of greatness that still stands vying for a national championship. Every No. 1 seed is in the Final Four for just the second time in NCAA Tournament history and first time since 2008.
Seeding, by the way, began in 1979.
What lies ahead has a chance to go down as the best Final Four in modern history. Action starts Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET on CBS between Auburn and Florida followed by Duke vs. Houston in the nightcap.
Auburn, the No. 1 overall seed, and Houston, the No. 3 overall seed, are 2.5-point and 5-point underdogs, which suggests how the markets feel about this weekend. But what does history say?
The 2008 gives us clues about what to expect.
2008 Final Four fireworks
The 2008 Final Four — the last and only time prior to 2025 that all No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four — also coincidentally took place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
That year, Memphis and coach John Calipari defeated UCLA 78-63 to punch its ticket to the title game. Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 28 points and Derrick Rose scored 25 for the Tigers to outlast Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love’s Bruins. Westbrook scored a team-high 22 points and Love had 12 in the loss.
Memphis outscored UCLA 40-28 in the second half to advance. It improved the team to 38-1 overall, setting a record at the time as the first team to reach 38 wins in a single season.
Kansas defeated No. 1 overall seed North Carolina on the other side of the bracket 84-66 led by Brandon Rush’s 25 points and 11 big points off the bench from Sherron Collins. KU never trailed in the game.
UNC won the championship the following year.
2008 title match
On Monday, April 7, 2008, No. 1 seed Kansas faced off against No. 1 seed Memphis — both led by Hall of Fame coaches in Bill Self and John Calipari, respectively — with the Jayhawks outlasting the Tigers 75-68 in overtime.
Memphis jumped out to an early lead and wrested control of the game in the second half, building a lead to as many as nine points with under three minutes remaining in regulation. Kansas then closed on a 12-3 run to force overtime, punctuated by an iconic 3-pointer from Mario Chalmers in the closing seconds. (Memphis fans: look away.)
In overtime, Kansas continued its momentum and never trailed, outscoring Memphis 10-5 over the final five minutes of the extra period.
Chalmers had 18 points for KU in the game and Darrell Arthur led the team with 20 points. Douglas-Roberts had a game-high 22 points, while Rose had 18.
Preseason prognostications correct
A chalky Final Four in 2008 succeeded a relatively chalky regular season. The top four teams of the preseason AP Top 25 were North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis and Kansas, the same four teams that made the Final Four.
Like 2025, all four teams were consistently the best or among the best performing teams all year. UNC in 2008 never fell lower than five in the AP poll; Memphis never dropped below three; Kansas stayed in the top six all season; and UCLA never dropped lower than 8.
Only two of this year’s Final Four teams were preseason top-10 teams: Houston (No. 4) and Duke (No. 7). Auburn began the season No. 11 in the AP poll and Florida was No. 21.
This news was originally published on this post .
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