Utah, Can This College Basketball Title Game Buck The Trend?

The NCAA March Madness tournament comes to a close tonight when the Houston Cougars do battle with the Florida Gators.

Someone will be crowned a champion and have their one shining moment while another will have to be content with runner up status.

As fans continue to buzz about Houston’s defensive driven comeback for the ages over Duke, or ramble about Florida and Walter Clayton Jr’ historic offensive tournament run, one thing is for certain.

Basketball fans around the world are without a doubt, excited for this one match up.

And why shouldn’t they be?

Two #1 Seeds going at it, a combined 70-8 record, a powerful offense against a suffocating defense.

It’s got every headline and bulletin point a basketball fan could want.

Yet fans can be a tad bit hesitant to fully buy into the hype, due to a recent streak of noncompetitive games on the sports brightest stage.

UConn, the winner of the last two titles in 2023 and 2024, dispatched their opponents by a combined 32 points.

In 2023 they leveled San Diego State 76-59 and then pummeled Purdue in 2024 to the tune of a 75-60 ball game.

Not the most entertaining as one could see.

The 2021 title claimed by Baylor saw the Bears blitz the Gonzaga Bulldogs by 16 points in a 86-70 showing.

2018’s champion, the Villanova Wildcats did some serious work against Michigan, discarding the Wolverines 79-62.

To add it all up is to understand that the last six years of championship games (dating back to 2018) have only featured two games that have been played within a single digit finale.

Those two games consist of the 2019 and 2022 finales.

Kansas and North Carolina hold the most recent thrilling tilt when the Jayhawks staged an epic comeback and edged the Tar Heels 72-69.

Virginia nabbed a crown in 2019 by handling Texas Tech, 85-77.

Now I know that doesn’t seem overly thrilling itself, but that finale was a byproduct of overtime, setting up maximum pressure on the largest stage.

It hasn't always been this way, a great game mixed in with mostly duds.

Prior to this stretch of inconsistency, their was six years of feast with every game from 2012 to 2017 being a single digit margin of victory.

The largest spread in that time was Kentucky besting Kansas in 2012 by 8 points.

The closest game was 2016’s Villanova title over North Carolina, 77-74.

Those were the good old days and fans hope that a Houston-Florida game will deliver the hard fought, back and forth epic battle they haven't seen in quite some time.

If any team can deliver it’s these two, who have both seen their fair share of tight knit games in the tournament alone.

Houston has played three of their five games within 5 points or less this tournament, with a 5-point win over Gonzaga, a 2-point win over Purdue and the most recent event, a three point defeat of Duke.

Florida has dealt with a six point margin in three of their five tournament games, a 2-point win over UConn, a 5-point victory against Texas Tech and their last win, a 6-point winner over Auburn.

The trends, the stats, the hype, all point to a battle last consistently seen in the early 2010’s and we can only hope that the Gators and Cougars start a fresh new trend of can’t miss college hoops title games.