Kim O’Reilly, CBS Sports
Sixty-eight teams will start this week in contention to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Only one can be left standing on Monday, April 7. Between now and then there will be chaos — and loads of it.
So I called in the big guns to help me, and help you, make all your picks as you fill out your stupendously perfect bracket to win your pool of choice. Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander and the rest of the CBS Sports hoops crew chipped in to offer their insights and share their own brackets. Take it as nothing more than guidance, or take it and fade, or copy all of it word for word.
We don’t care. We just want you to be armed with information to fill out your bracket in the best possible way.
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Our expert’s brackets are below with title picks and explainers included.. …
2025 NCAA Tournament bracket predictions
Gary Parrish
Auburn has been college basketball’s best team throughout this season that’s more than four months old — and that’s why I’m sticking with the Tigers to win the national championship despite their recent struggles. Yes, I know they’ve lost three of their past four games. Yes, I know no team has ever won the NCAA Tournament after losing three-of-four games just before Selection Sunday. But Bruce Pearl has been making history his whole life, and I won’t be surprised if he does it again. Auburn will cut nets in San Antonio. Johni Broome will be the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
Matt Norlander
Over the past five seasons, it’s fair to say no program has been more consistent, more rugged, more stubbornly successful to win on their terms than Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars. Two years removed from a top-seeded Houston team having a chance to win it all in their home city, I’ve got UH finishing the job in 2025 in its home state. My reason: Great coaches — often, though not always — reached the mountaintop. Sampson is a great coach. This team is the best offense and has the 3-point attack, by far, of any team he’s had. From Joseph Tugler’s defense to J’Wan Roberts’ brute presence to LJ Cryer, Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan’s sharpshooting capabilities, all the pieces are in place for the Coogs to celebrate in San Antonio.
Kyle Boone
There is an obvious unknown here with Duke after star freshman Cooper Flagg — the favorite to win National Player of the Year, the frontrunner to be the No. 1 NBA Draft pick and the all-everything for the Blue Devils — went down in the ACC Tournament with an ankle sprain. But if Flagg can nurse himself back to full health or something close to full health as Duke makes a run, then I’m simply betting on the team I think has the most talent led by the best player in the sport. That can take the Blue Devils the distance and I’m projecting it will. Duke won 31 games leading into the NCAA Tournament and 26 of its last 27 games. It did not have the resume of No. 1 overall seed Auburn — which Duke beat during that run — but it has been the best team in college basketball for much of that span. Of course, the best team doesn’t always emerge from the bracket, but in this case I think Duke can do it.
David Cobb
Florida is entering the NCAA Tournament after a dominant tear through the SEC Tournament that capped an impressive season for a team that has no obvious weaknesses. The Gators have elite guards and a convoy of high-motor bigs who are relentless on the boards. After grinding through the SEC, the Gators won’t flinch in potential matchups with two-time reigning national champion UConn or with St. John’s and legendary coach Rick Pitino. Florida has everything it needs to win it all, including a ton of momentum entering the tournament.
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Jerry Palm
Florida is on a heater entering the NCAA Tournament coming off a dominant performance in the SEC tournament. Winners of 12 of their last 13 games, all but three by double-digit margins, the Gators look every bit the part of a national champion. Their last six wins are all Quad 1 games. They will probably find the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament to be easier than what they are used to seeing night in and night out in the league. Walter Clayton Jr. leads a balanced scoring attack in which six players average 8 ppg. It is going to take a very good team on a very good day to take down Florida.
Dennis Dodd
The difference in Houston this season is balance. To go along with the nation’s best scoring defense is an effective offense. The Cougars are top 20 in three-point shooting. The trio of L.J. Cryer, Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp are actually one of the better scoring forces in the tournament. Uzan just came off a career-hgh 25 points against Arizona in the Big 12 Tournament Championship Game.Sharp was the most outstanding player of the tournament. Kelvin Sampson gets top rebounder J’Wan Roberts (ankle) back for the NCAA Tournament. This is Sampson’s best team he has had at Houston. A Final Four is almost a lock. Then we’ll see if that balance transfers to win a national championship. The Cougars are 25-2 since Nov. 30. The only conference loss is by 1 to Texas Tech. Watch Sampson himself. If he wins it all at 69 is this his walk off in San Antonio.
Chip Patterson
Auburn and Houston face absolute landmines on the way to the Final Four and that opens things up for Duke and Florida, who may be the No. 2 and No. 4 seeds in this tournament according to the selection committee but are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams on the board for the national title odds. The ACC and SEC Tournament champs each showed their versatility over the last week, and that’s why I think they’ll endure the path to the title game. Duke won two and a half games without star Cooper Flagg (ankle) and looked excellent against Louisville with the Blue Devils’ depth on full display. Florida just beat three of the top 18 teams in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s rankings in back-to-back nights en route to cutting down nets in Nashville. Ultimately I’ll take Duke over Florida in the title game but feel more confident about both teams making the Final Four than who ends up on top if they should meet on the final Monday night of the season.
Cameron Salerno
Duke enters the NCAA Tournament feeling relieved after superstar freshman Cooper Flagg appears to have escaped a potential tournament-altering injury. The Blue Devils showed their depth and experience during the ACC Tournament without Flagg in the lineup and have a favorable draw to get back to the Final Four. Flagg can bring a championship back home to Duke and solidify himself as one of the most accomplished one-and-done players in college basketball history by winning a national title. Duke will be the last team standing in San Antonio.
Isaac Trotter
Duke has lost one game since Nov. 28. One. That’s just so hard for me to overlook, and I like Duke’s processes on both ends of the floor. The Blue Devils create a boatload of catch-and-shoot 3-pointers or shots at the rim. Duke also is elite at protecting the rim with maybe the best shot-blocker in the 2025 NBA Draft. What does this recipe remind you of? Oh, UConn. The game plans that fueled UConn can be the exact same blueprint Duke uses to win the title.
