Men’s Last Four live tracker: Updates on Duke-Houston from San
The men’s Final Four is underway in San Antonio.The No. 1 general seed Auburn fell to Florida throughout the opener in San Antonio with Walter Clayton Jr. and the Gators putting the Tigers away 79-73 after routing at halftime. Florida will deal with the winner of Duke vs. Houston in Monday night’s champion game.Our reporters
on-site and editors throughout the country are tracking all the action below.Skip to: Analysis of Florida’s win Final Four live tracker go.arena.im”===e.origin & &”arena-iframe-size”===e.data.source & &(t=document.getElementById(“arena-liveblog-iframe-pieur4P”))& &(t.style.height=e.data.height+”px”, t.contentWindow.postMessage( ,”https:,! 1);]] >
Last: Florida defeated Auburn 79-73
How Florida won: Whenever things begin to fall apart, Florida turns to its star– it remains in those minutes when the very best variation of Walter Clayton Jr., an AP first team All-American, appears. It happened again Saturday, as Clayton took it upon himself (once again) to destroy Auburn’s dreams and send out the Tigers home when he scored a game-high 34 points. A late 3-point play– a pail and a totally free toss after a nasty– sealed the win for a figured out Florida team. Down by nine points early in the 2nd half, the Gators turned to their hero, who extended his postseason display screen of back-breaking shots as he led Florida out of another hole to help the program advance to the nationwide title game Monday night for the very first time given that 2007, when the program won back-to-back national titles. — Myron Medcalf
No. 1 aspect that assisted them reach the title game: Walter Clayton Jr. It’s constantly Walter Clayton Jr., isn’t it? The senior guard became the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to produce back-to-back 30-point games in the Elite 8 and national semifinals, according to ESPN Research study. He finished with 34 points and five 3-pointers, leaving Auburn entirely defenseless on how to defend him. Florida looked stagnant offensively with him on the bench in the very first half, however came to life when he started after the break. Auburn had no response for his sensational shotmaking capability. Bruce Pearl switched his big wings onto Clayton, however it didn’t matter. Objected to shots, getting run the 3-point line, Clayton still discovered a way. It was an impressive performance.– Jeff Borzello
Note: The rest of this story was published before the Last Four tipped.Final 4 Predictions Which groups do ESPN experts have winning the males’s Final 4 games this weekend? And which one do they predict to lower the webs in San Antonio on Monday night?We polled 56 personalities who have covered the guys’s college basketball season on ESPN platforms this season– from previous national champs Jim Boeheim and Jay Williams to Bracketologist Joe Lunardi– on the winners of Auburn vs. Florida and Duke vs. Houston. We likewise asked to pick their national champion.The semifinals results don’t roaming far from the chances at ESPN BET– however they do on the title winner.Duke, Florida favorites to win Final 4 Walter Clayton Jr. and the Florida Gators were selected by 59% of the experts polled (a 33 to 23 split )to beat Johni Broome and the Auburn Tigers– almost precisely the same implied probability (60%)of Florida’s -155 money-line odds.Meanwhile, Cooper Flagg and the Duke Blue Devils were picked by 73% (or 41)of the participants to defeat L.J. Cryer and the Houston Cougars, again carefully matching the suggested probability(72%)of Duke’s -260 money-line
odds.Duke favored to win, No. 2 a possible surprise Little surprise here: A lot of chose the Blue Devils to lower the webs at the Alamodome on Monday night with 61%of the support (or 34 votes). However unlike the futures market at ESPN BET, which gives Florida the second-best chances to win everything, the second-most selected group isn’t from the SEC. Rather, 11 of the 15 analysts who selected Houston to win its Final Four matchup versus
Duke have the Cougars going all the way.Florida(7)and Auburn(4 )divided the final votes. See the full breakdown of votes below!Scroll right if viewing on mobile/ESPN App 2025 guys’s NCAA tournament Last 4 & championship game selects