March is here, and it’s already giving us madness in college basketball. The regular season is wrapping up, men’s and women’s conference tournaments are getting underway, and on March 16th, the 68-team fields for both NCAA national championship tournaments will be announced.

As the most exciting, most intense, and most watched juncture of the college hoops calendar arrives, the David-vs.-Goliath upsets, Hail Mary game-winners, multi-overtime thrillers, and dominant performances by top pro prospects that have happened in the past week or so are just previews for what’s to come.

The eight teams listed below — four on the men’s side, four on the women’s side — are the ones I believe to be the strongest candidates to win a national championship in 2025. But due to unpredictable nature of the tourney, there’s just as good of a chance that none of them are holding the big trophy at the end.

Auburn (men) — SEC, 27-3

National player of the year contender Johni Broome is the headliner, but the Tigers have a lot more in their arsenal that can hurt opponents. As a team, Auburn is fourth in the country in points per game, and first in adjusted offensive efficiency; second in blocks and ninth in opponents’ 3-point percentage; and the Tigers have the fourth-fewest turnovers. They’re currently ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25, and even if they don’t win the SEC tournament, could still be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Broome, a senior forward averaging 18.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, leads six double-figure scorers for the Tigers: senior guard Miles Kelly, freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford, senior guard Denver Jones, senior forward Chaney Johnson, and senior forward Chad Baker-Mazara (a finalist for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation’s best small forward). You might have noticed that’s a lot of seniors. Auburn is experienced and matches up well with any style of play they might face in the postseason. They’ve grinded out wins against quality teams in which they scored in the 50s, and prevailed in shootouts where they scored 90 to 100 points.

Texas (women) — SEC, 29-2

There’s a very real possibility that the Longhorns will get to the national championship game and find themselves lined up across from a team they’ve already beaten this season. Texas, currently ranked No. 1 by the AP, has five wins this season against teams that were ranked in the top 10 at the time they met: LSU, Kentucky, South Carolina, Maryland, and Oklahoma.

Sophomore forward Madison Booker — the SEC Player of the Year in 2025 and the Big 12 co-Player of the Year in 2024 when Texas was in that conference — leads the Longhorns with 16 points per game to go with 6.5 rebounds. Senior guard Rori Harmon spearheads a defense that is sixth in the nation in adjusted efficiency and ninth in turnover percentage; Texas held Georgia to 26 points in a game last month, forcing UGA into 25 turnovers and allowing just 11 made field goals.

Michigan State (men) — Big Ten, 24-5

There was a time when coach Tom Izzo had the Spartans in the Final Four at least once every four years; for a long time, no senior passed through East Lansing without making a Final Four appearance. That streak was eventually snapped, and Michigan State hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2019 — but this year’s group is looking like one that can make another deep tournament run for their Hall of Fame coach.

Sitting atop a Big Ten conference that has five teams ranked inside the top 20, Michigan State (eighth) has recorded four straight wins against those other foes: Purdue, Michigan, Maryland, and Wisconsin. There’s no big-stats star on the Spartans; senior guard Jaden Akins leads the team with 12.9 points per game, and the only other double-digit scorer is freshman guard Jase Richardson (11.0 ppg), the son of MSU legend Jason Richardson. Like his father, Jase Richardson is a highlight-reel athlete, but even his hype video wouldn’t match up with sophomore forward Coen Carr, who’s the kind of guy you want to see make it to the NBA just so he can compete in the NBA Slam Dunk contest.

USC (women) — Big Ten, 26-2

It’s not all about JuJu Watkins, but … sometimes it is. The undisputed best player in women’s college basketball could be just a few years away from being the best player in women’s pro basketball, and she’s only a sophomore. Watkins is a 6-foot-2 guard/forward who simply controls the court: 24.4 points per game, 6.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.1 steals, and 2.0 blocks. The Big Ten Player of the Year had a 40-point game this season, a 14-rebound game, a 9-assist game, a 6-steal game, an 8-block game, and a game with 9 three-pointers. It’s like whatever facet of the game she decides to dominate that particular night, she does it. And it translates to wins, as the Trojans’ record shows.

USC also has 6-foot-3 senior forward Kiki Iriafen, who would be the best player on almost every other team in the country and will probably be a top-3 pick in this year’s WNBA Draft. (Watkins could go pro whenever she wants, but will most likely stay in college at least one more year after this.) Iriafen, who transferred to USC after starring at Stanford, is averaging 18.1 points and 8.3 rebounds. And then there’s 6-foot-4 center Rayah Marshall, who leads the team with 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. The Trojans’ size and sheer talent puts them among the favorites to win a national title.

Duke (men) — ACC, 27-3

College basketball’s Evil Empire is back, once again led by a frustratingly brilliant coach and a star player who looks like a cast member of Outer Banks, and this time they’re certified bullies. The Blue Devils have destroyed their ACC competition, winning 12 conference games by at least 20 points and their last three by at least 30 points. Which brings up the question: Is Duke just that good and will cruise through the NCAA Tournament like UConn has done each of the last two years, or are they going into the postseason untested (because the ACC is just that bad) and will crumble against tougher teams from outside the ACC orbit? A good sign for Duke in that sense is they recently routed Illinois, a projected tournament team from the Big Ten, and earlier in the season picked up solid nonconference wins over Auburn and Arizona.

Head coach Jon Scheyer was an All-American player on some of those classic villainous Duke squads — like the 2010 national championship team — and has kept the Blue Devils at an elite level after taking over for GOAT coach candidate Mike Krzyzewski three years ago. Scheyer’s marquee player is freshman forward Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft who in many ways falls into the same archetypical Duke star lineage as Christian Laettner and Danny Ferry and Grant Hill and Paolo Banchero. The 6-foot-9 Flagg (another Julius Erving Award finalist) leads the team in every major statistical category, averaging 19.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game.

Notre Dame (women) — ACC, 25-4

Guards win games in college hoops, and the best backcourt on the women’s side is playing at Notre Dame. Sophomore Hannah Hidalgo (24.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.7 steals, ACC Player of the Year), senior Olivia Miles (16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists), and senior Sonia Citron (14.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.9 steals) comprise a “Big Three” that can foreseeably carry the Fighting Irish to a national title. And just for balance, senior forward Liatu King is averaging a double-double to hold it down in the frontcourt.

Notre Dame has wins over Texas, USC, and UConn this season, three legit title contenders.

Florida (men) — SEC, 25-4

This group has the talent, teamwork, and toughness to go all the way. Senior point guard Walter Clayton Jr. leads four double-digit scorers, averaging 16.9 points and 4.0 assists. He’s a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation’s best point guard. Six-foot-11 sophomore Alex Condon leads the frontcourt, putting up 10.5 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. When Florida beat then-No. 1 Auburn in early February, Condon had a 17-and-10 double-double, and Clayton was just shy of a double-double with 19 points and 9 assists.

But keep an eye out for the awkward moment — or the awkward entire Final Four weekend — when the national media dances around the fact that Florida head coach Todd Golden spent the majority of this season being investigated for sexual harassment and stalking, and assistant coach Taurean Green is still facing sexual assault allegations. (The school ultimately cleared Golden in its Title IX probe.) I remember one of the Gators’ first games after the initial Golden accusations came out (against Grambling in November), and ESPN went out of its way to not show Golden on camera or mention his name, which is pretty noticeable during the TV broadcast of a college basketball game. It would be impossible to hide Golden if the Gators go all the way to a national title. Considering how the players stayed focused and kept winning even when it looked like their program was going to be in shambles, they won’t be shook by the big stage of March Madness.

South Carolina (women) — SEC, 27-3

While it’s probably safe to say the UConn men will not win a third straight national title, I’m not yet ready to count out the reigning women’s national champions. After going 35-2, then 36-1, then 38-0 over the past three seasons — with two national championships in that span — this has been a “down year” for Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks, and yet look at where they are: currently ranked No. 5 in the country, with the top seed in the SEC tournament (SC won a coin flip with Texas), and their three losses have been to UCLA (was ranked No. 1), Texas (is ranked No. 1), and UConn (the bluest blueblood in women’s college basketball).

South Carolina hasn’t had that one dominant franchise player this season that you’re used to seeing in Columbia, e.g. A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, or Kamilla Cardoso. Instead, they’re led by a balanced top four of Joyce Edwards, Te-Hina Paopao, Chloe Kitts, and SEC Sixth Woman of the Year MiLaysia Fulwiley. Three of them were All-SEC selections, and two Gamecocks made the SEC All-Defensive team. South Carolina is third nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and adjusted defensive efficiency. They’re top-10 in rebounds and blocks. In other words, they don’t necessarily need that franchise superstar to win it all. In South Carolina’s national title game win over Iowa and their Elite Eight win over Oregon State last year, not one player reached 20 points; the top scorer each time was Tessa Johnson, who came off the bench for 19 and 15 points, respectively. (Johnson is averaging 8.4 points off the bench this season.) Cliche as it sounds, the Gamecocks are one of those teams that “just finds a way,” and this year they can’t be written off until someone erases them.

Toughest cuts: Houston (men), UConn (women), Tennessee (men), LSU (women)