The experience of both of the two seeds who escaped Rocket Arena in Cleveland with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen booked was emblematic of this first weekend of the 2025 NCAA Tournament as a whole. Both Alabama and Michigan State were threatened not once, but twice and yet, still managed to post a pair of victories without any true hold your breath moments.
The Crimson Tide briefly trailed with 7:10 to go against fifteenth seeded Robert Morris, and felt enough pressure to bring in injured Grant Nelson, who they were trying to save for their second game. In that game, St. Mary's succeeded for the vast majority of the outing in doing the impossible, making Alabama play a rock fight. But the Gaels just couldn't make shots (34.3% from the field), and while their performance would have led to relaxing mid-February victories against, say, Santa Clara or Washington State, it was problematic versus Alabama's firepower.
Michigan State also stumbled out of the gate against a fifteen seed, leading Bryant by just five at half before Coen Carr and company just imposed their will on the much smaller foes from the America East. In the second round, New Mexico proved to be a much more formidable challenge and the Spartans can count themselves lucky that Lobos center Nelly Junior Joseph was knocked off the court in foul trouble, as they couldn't contain him in a sixteen point, seven rebound performance that turned out not to be enough.
This was all hand-in-hand with the rest of the country. A fairly fun journey with some exciting stops along the way, highlighted by three straight excellent Friday games, from Robert Morris posing a real threat to Alabama, a back and forth battle to the end between St. Mary's and Vanderbilt, and New Mexico's Donovan Dent decisively winning the battle with Marquette's All-American Kam Jones in crunch time.
But in the end, the two favorites ended up winning comfortably in games that were still entertaining. Early on in the Michigan State-New Mexico clash, I even starting to mentally outline this story with a much different tilt, a toast to New Mexico after the upset that eventually never materialized. It's the story of an NCAA Tournament that has produced a Sweet Sixteen of sixteen power conference football schools, in which the only seed above six is an uber-talented Arkansas squad led by John Calipari, that was penalized for significant underperformance in January.
I came away from the weekend believing that I had just watched two bona fide national championship contenders in actions. Alabama really fits the part, with a combination of speed and length that you cannot take your eyes of. Seeing NBA games in person every few years, it really hits you that those players are simply bigger and stronger than the the college players I see year round.
The Crimson Tide look like an NBA team. They are quick to take out 6'11" Cliff Omoruyi each half because 6'11" Jarin Stevenson, 6'10'" Aiden Sherrell and 6'7" but incredibly strong Mouhamed Dioubate are waiting to flank the 6'11" Nelson. In fact, the only two Alabama players who don't have NBA size are of course their two time All-American Mark Sears, and his backup Aden Holloway.
It was the Crimson Tide's size and physicality that kept both of their opponents at bay while Sears was in foul trouble in each game (the team was +5 in 7 minutes with Sears on the bench versus Robert Morris and +9 in 14 minutes against St. Mary's), and a fantastic performance by Holloway in the latter game was significant as well. Sears' superstar performance in the final nine minutes of that affair (eight points, two rebounds) was what finally forced the Gaels to play at Alabama's pace and finished them off.
This is the one offense that can throw the vaunted defenses of the championship favorites into flux at a moments notice (they've already posted eighty-two or more points in all four games against Auburn and Florida this season). Omoruyi and Dioubate combined for thirty-five points against Robert Morris. Neither could come close to replicating that in the next game, which didn't matter, thanks to Nelson's return, Holloway stepping up and Chris Youngbood scoring thirteen points on just five field goal attempts.
Alabama did all this amidst all awful shooting run from freshman sensation Labaron Philon, who made up for it with eight assists in the first game, and five more as part of a triple nickel in the second. Everyone stepped up for the Crimson Tide, and the sky seems to be literally be the the limit after they completed four second half alley-oops and became the first offense to score eighty or more points on St. Mary's since Gonzaga did so on March 8th...2022!! A full one hundred and five games ago.
Meanwhile, Michigan State may not have Alabama's two-pronged identity, but the Spartans may have the more impressive depth. One can make the case that the bench trio of Coen Carr, Tre Holloman and Carson Cooper all deserve to start. Carr was absolutely dominant against Bryant, scoring eighteen points with nine rebounds, thanks to his overwhelming athleticism and enough high flying plays to make a mixtape off of just that game.
Holloman was the only Spartan to score in double-digits in both games and Cooper led the team in rebounding in both contests. Even the much maligned Frankie Fidler took on a starring role, with eight points during the second half run that allowed Michigan State to pull away from New Mexico.
After falling behind early in each game, the Spartans responded by hitting the offensive glass hard, rebounding 42% of their own misses versus Bryant (thirty-one second chance points) and 33% versus New Mexico (just eight). Even amidst a pair of poor performances from Jeremy Fears Jr, and rough games from Jaden Akins (4-15 shooting against Bryant) and Jase Richardson (1-10 against New Mexico), Michigan State's strength will keep them afloat.
But on the nights where Richardson is in rhythm (3-4 from deep versus Bryant), this offense seems to match the level of the Spartans' top five national defense, which surrendered a jaw droppingly low nine three-pointers for the entire weekend.
I come out of the weekend believing that the 2025 versions of Alabama and Michigan State would be prime title contenders in any given year, and yet I simply cannot justify ranking either in the top four at this moment. That's what happens in a season where the top is historically great. Alabama currently sits sixth in the nation per Kenpom with a rating that would have had them first in 2023, and second in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. And it all sets up for a thrilling last two weeks.