Some thoughts on the three tournaments that took up the bulk of my weekend: NCAA men’s basketball, NCAA women’s basketball, and GLORY Kickboxing’s Last Heavyweight Standing.

Basketball

Much was written and said about the 2025 NCAA basketball tournament — the men’s more so than the women’s — being negatively impacted (even “ruined” according to the more dramatic voices) by an absence of Cinderella teams, a lack of upsets, and what felt like fewer comebacks and close games than usual.

All it took was one Final Four classic duel to shut everyone up. Well, some of them. Until next year.

Houston’s 70-67 win over Duke in Saturday’s national semifinal had all the magic of March Madness (in April) wrapped up in a flash of game time. With just over eight minutes to go, Duke led by 14 points. With three minutes left, they still led by nine. With 1:14 left, they led by six. It was too close for Duke’s absolute comfort, but it still felt pretty hopeless for Houston.

And this is why I love the fact that athletes and coaches do not give up when the fans and media believe it’s over. My Dad called me several times during this game. He wanted Houston to win, but even in the first half he was resigning himself to the reality that they would lose. Well into the second half, he called the Cougars’ time of death and was wondering who he’d root for in a Duke vs. Florida national title game. Literally millions of people watching this game no doubt felt the same way. If Houston followed their lead, the Cougars would’ve packed up and left San Antonio at halftime.

But with 33 seconds left, Emanuel Sharp hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three. Suddenly, to the rest of us not on Houston’s sideline, it felt like there was a chance. Then Duke turned it over, and Houston’s Joseph Tugler got a tip dunk on a missed 3 to cut the lead to one with 25 seconds left. Then Duke missed a free throw, and then a foul was called on Duke, and Houston’s J’Wan Roberts went to the line and made two free throws. The Cougars suddenly had the lead with 19 seconds left. The game flipped from Houston down six to Houston up one in 15 seconds. Another Duke miss and a couple more Houston free throws, and that was it.

Even as a No. 1 seed in the tournament and a team that had been ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation during the regular season, Houston entered this game as a clear underdog. Duke was the bigger, more talented team headlined by newly crowned national college player of the year and future NBA top draft pick Cooper Flagg. The Blue Devils, in fact, have at least five players projected to go in this year’s NBA draft; Houston has zero. These Cougars are just a resilient team, though. I knew that back on January 25th, when I watched them win a double-overtime game at Kansas in which they trailed by six with 1:30 to go in regulation and again by six with 28 seconds to go in the first overtime.

On Monday, Houston will face Florida, also a No. 1 seed that was an underdog in their national semifinal against Auburn (the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament). The Gators were also down on Saturday, but made their big comeback midway through the second half, unlike Houston storming back in the last possible window of opportunity.

The story of the Gators’ run has been the dominance of Walter Clayton Jr. The senior point guard peaked a little too late to crash the national player of the year debate between Cooper Flagg and Auburn’s Johni Broome, but he was an easy All-American pick and has been at his best in the tournament. Clayton scored 34 points on Saturday, after scoring 30 against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. He also led Florida with 23 points in its second-round win over two-time reigning national champion UConn. Clayton has played himself into the first-round NBA draft picture.

Another standout for me in the Florida-Auburn game was Gators guard Alijah Martin. Built like a football player at 6-foot-2 and listed at 210 pounds, his 17 points included a couple of dunks that had shades of Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose.

Clayton owned the stat sheet and Martin headlined the highlight reel, but Alex Condon made his mark without doing either. Florida’s 6-foot-11 center finished with one point, one block, four rebounds, and he fouled out. But he was taking charges, getting stops, altering shots, and holding his own against Broome, the Auburn superstar who was limited to 15 points on Saturday.

Broome struggled, and he was playing hurt due to multiple injuries he had during the tournament, but you could watch him against Florida and still see why the 6-foot-10 forward racked up so many accolades this season. I don’t get the NBA sometimes, because apparently Broome is not a lock to get drafted. And yet every year it seems, there’s a college big man who’s allegedly undersized or supposedly lacks athleticism or apparently can’t shoot who goes undrafted or gets picked in the second round, and he ends up being an impact player for an NBA title contender. Broome is looking like that guy.

The women’s tournament concluded on Sunday, and UConn is back on top of the world after beating South Carolina, 82-59. The program won its 12th national championship, all of them under coach Geno Auriemma, and senior superstar Paige Bueckers was able to add the only thing that was missing from her college resume — the national title that every other UConn legend before her has under their belt. Some have a few of ’em.

Bueckers was the story of the day, but fellow senior guard Azzi Fudd (24 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) got the Most Outstanding Player award. I thought it rightfully should have gone to forward Sarah Strong (24 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals), but I wonder if the voters figured the freshman Strong will be back on this stage and will probably get another championship for UConn before she’s done.

South Carolina was the reigning national champion, began the season ranked No. 1 in the country, and began the tournament as a No. 1 seed, made it all the way to another national title game … and yet it just never felt like they would be able to finish the job in 2025. Dawn Staley’s squad was missing that go-to star they’ve typically had on past championship teams, and that lack of reliable offense ultimately bit them on Sunday.

Kickboxing

The GLORY 99 pay-per-view card was chock full of 16 matches that served as the first round of the Last Heavyweight Standing tournament, which began with 32 competitors and will be whittled down to eight for the finale in December. Notes from the first round:

Twin brothers Asdren and Luigj Gashi won their respective matchups on the prelim portion of the card. In his GLORY debut, Luigj won a unanimous decision over Petr Romankevich, who could barely stand by the end of the fight thanks to Gashi’s leg kicks. Asdren won a split decision over Nidal Bchiri.

Nathan Cook was knocked out in under 30 seconds by Anis Bouzid, but Cook was mentally never in the fight. And understandably: his father passed away the day before. One of the worst things about sports is that too many people forget that athletes are people too. It was nice to see the GLORY announcers relay Cook’s story and show him some empathy.

In the final prelim fight, Iran’s Iraj Azizpour scored a violent knockout against Yuri Farcas with a spinning backfist. The way Farcas’s nose was busted, I thought he’d been hit with an elbow, but it really was just a perfectly placed brick of a fist.

First-round winners were randomly put in four-man pods for the “group stage”-style second round of Phase 1, where at the next show they’ll have to win two fights in one night in four-man brackets. Azizpour’s second-round draw sees him facing Romania’s Ionut Iancu, who knocked out Cihad Kepenek. “The Iranian Hammer” vs. “The Romanian Tank” is already being hyped up as possibly the best matchup of the second round.

Iran’s Sina Karimian entered the tournament as the most controversial fighter in the field due to a history of illegal tactics inside the ring and some racism outside the ring. He lived up to his reputation on Saturday; during his match against Tomas Mozny, Karimian punched Mozny well after the break and pretty much knocked him out. The ref took a point from Karimian and allowed Mozny time to get up and collect himself. The fight continued, and Mozny rightfully won by decision.

Nicolas Wamba was already in an uphill battle against Mory Kromah when he missed a spinning wheel kick, got up … and fell back down without being touched. He was on the mat pointing to his left leg — my guess is that he suffered an Achilles injury, which could be a career-ender for the 37-year-old.

In my opinion, Sofian Laïdouni of France looked better than any fighter in Rotterdam on Saturday, knocking out Oleg Pryimachov in the first round with a crisp and brutal performance. I immediately wanted to pick Laidouni to win the whole tournament. But the way his second-round bracket turned out, that’s going to be a tall order.

But Laidouni may have gotten off easy compared to Sebia’s Miloš Cvjetićanin, a 230-pounder who upset 355-pound behemoth Nabil Khachab — and then wound up in a second-round foursome with Colin George (270 pounds), Nico Horta (293 pounds), and Mozny (297 pounds). Horta made it to the second round with a shocking upset knockout of Rade Opačić, GLORY’s recent star free-agent acquisition from ONE Championship who is ranked fifth in the world and was among the early favorites to win this tournament.

Benjamin Adegbuyi probably needs to retire. I’m usually not one to tell athletes what to do with their careers, but combat sports is one exception. The 40-year-old looked shot against Cookie Osaro, seemingly unable to throw anything while getting beaten up in a first-round knockout loss. Speaking of beatings, GLORY really put Bahram Rajabzadeh — the highest-ranked heavyweight in the field — in a first-round match with a guy whose left eye is partially shut. No surprise that one ended early.

Jamal Ben Saddik‘s decision win over Christian Ristea wasn’t really close, but the much smaller Ristea proved to be a fun competitor to watch who showed no fear going toe-to-toe with the man nicknamed “The Goliath.”

Asadulla Nasipov, who advanced to the second round, is the only Russian fighter in the tournament, which is notable because GLORY had essentially banned Russian fighters from the promotion after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The reasons given at the time were logistical. Leading up to GLORY 99, the “ban” was lifted when Nasipov was added to the tournament, and former GLORY champion Artem Vakhitov was booked for the main event of GLORY 100. But whereas 31 fighters on Saturday were introduced with their country named and a graphic of their national flag, Nasipov had nothing, not even a graphic of the Russian flag. He was treated like a man with a country, a pro wrestler from “Parts Unknown.” Was that his choice, or was GLORY showing that its ban on Russian fighters was more political than logistical.

While it hasn’t been announced, presumably the winner of the Last Heavyweight Standing tourney will get a shot at the GLORY heavyweight championship belt, currently held by Rico Verhoeven. As good as Laidouni looked, he’s in a second-round bracket with Ben Saddik and Osaro. The winner of that one might be the front-runner to take the whole thing.

My picks for Round 2: Horta to win Group A, Rajabzadeh to win Group B, Ben Saddik to win Group C, and Iancu to win Group D.