Hyped for March Madness 2025? Dates, Iconic Moments, and Predictions

It's that time of year when teams in most sports are gearing up for a major push before the end-of-season frenzy. For me, the gateway to the Spring storm has always been the NCAA March Madness college basketball tour, which looks especially delirious this year.

The March Madness 2025 is almost within reach, with 68 college basketball teams locking horns for 3 weeks in the hope of making history. In anticipation of the tournament, we take a look at the significance of NCAA March Madness, its most iconic moments, and make a couple of end-game predictions.

Why March Madness Matters

For the uninitiated, March Madness is a nickname for the NCAA annual tournament that concludes the college basketball season. It involves 68 teams facing off in 6 elimination rounds before the all-important finals.

The tournament has something of a cult status among basketball fans because that's where legends are being forged. Just think of all the NBA stars who made their mark in the NCAA: Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Tim Duncan, to name a few. Likewise, the games never disappoint in terms of effort, energy, and high drama.

March Madness 2025 matters for bettors, too. These games have historically been wildly unpredictable, and the odds at BC.Game, Playbet.io, and Stake surely reflect that.

March Madness 2025 Dates

This year's NCAA men's basketball tournament starts on March 18, 2025 and takes place over the next three weeks. The Final Four games are slated for April 5, while the finals game will take place two days later also in Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas.

This year's Selection Sunday-the day of announcing March Madness 2025 brackets, falls on March 16.

The Craziest March Madness Moments

It's called March Madness for a reason. Unpredictable that it is, the tour has seen some spectacular games and iconic performances over the course of its long history. Let's revisit some of them, shall we?

Steph Curry Raining Threes (2008)

You could see that Steph was special back in 2008. The way he dispatched opposition by raining those long-distance threes in his oversized Davidson jersey was nothing short of spectacular. As a 10th seed, Curry led his team to the Elite Eight, their best performance in 4 decades. His 2008 performance remains one of the most iconic moments in college basketball history.

NC State Cinderella Run (1983)

At #6 seed, nobody gave NC State a smidgen of a chance in 1983. What they pulled off, especially in the finals against a heavily favoured Houston team with young Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler on the roster, will forever remain one of the most improbable underdog stories in basketball-immortalized by Jim Valvano's emphatic celebration and later speeches.

Weber's Controversial Timeout (1993)

The March Madness history doesn't know a more bizarre high-stakes moment than that of Chris Weber, Michigan's star boy at the time, calling a timeout with 11 seconds remaining on the clock and the game tied at 73:73. But the Fab Five had no timeouts left and the referees called Weber for a technical. North Carolina won and Weber later admitted that he panicked.

Villanova Buzzer-Beater (2016)

One of the most dramatic finals took place in 2016 at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas when Kris Jenkins drilled a buzzer-beating three-pointer with 5 seconds on the clock. The action preceding the final shot was wild, as well, with North Carolina sinking 3s all night and the result changing hands from the first play. It remains one of the most spectacular March Madness finals and one of very few that concluded with a buzzer-beater.

Key Teams to Watch 

With two weeks before the tour, let's take a brief look at the top-ranking teams right now. 

Auburn is the clear No1 seed, and no caprice of bracketology can change that. The No. 2 and 3 overall seeds are a toss-up between Duke and Houston, who are also similar in terms of Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins (6 and 12 for Duke and 7 and 16 for Houston). Tennessee is pretty secured for the No.4 overall after that win over Alabama, who are in the lockstep for No.5 overall. 

March Madness 2025 Predictions 

March Madness games are notoriously tough to predict, but that's what makes them fun in my book. And, besides, the odds are always slightly on the higher side, precisely due to the unpredictable nature of the tour. 

Although the odds for specific games are not out yet, the outright odds for March Madness 2025 are very much live.  

The heavy favourites to win the whole thing are the Duke Blue Devils and Auburn Tigers. Some sportsbooks like Jackbit have them split at 4.30, which is not exactly how I see it. I'm more with BC.Game on this one, with odds of 4.0 on the Tigers and 5.0 on the Blue Devils. 

My dark horse in this race is the Iowa State Cyclones. I don't know, having four double-figure scorers in the team and adding to last year's decent performance has me looking hopeful. I'm also looking at Stake here, which has them at 23.00, but the more realistic scenario is making the top four and I'll be betting my way on Cyclones for the first five rounds.