With New Jersey’s own Dan Hurley and his UConn Huskies' bid for a three-peat ending with a loss to Florida in the second round, there will be a new national champion in men’s college basketball for the first time in three years.
The question now: Will the new champion be Florida, which is in tonight's title game for the first time in 18 years when the program won its second consecutive championship in 2007?
The Gators are led by senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., a consensus first-team All-American this season, who’s been perhaps one of the top-two players in this year’s tournament outside of Duke’s Cooper Flagg, who’s projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
The former MAAC guard from Iona took his play to another level in March Madness, averaging a season-high 24.6 points per game, including back-to-back 30-plus point performances in the Elite Eight and Final Four to get Florida back to the title game.
On the flip side you have Houston, a school searching for its first national championship in men’s basketball after being the runner-up two consecutive seasons back in 1983 and 1984.
The Cougars are also led by senior guard L.J. Cryer, who had his best performance of the tournament against Duke in the Final Four, where he finished with 26 points and shot a tournament-best 57.1 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc in Houston’s come-from-behind victory after trailing by 14 past the midway mark of the second half.
Will it be Houston or Florida? Here are our staff predictions on which program will be crowned national champions tonight in San Antonio.
Bert Bainbridge
Florida 68, Houston 60
Jerry Carino
Houston 65, Florida 61
Steve Edelson
Houston 72, Florida 70
Tom McGurk
Houston 71, Florida 68
Dave Rivera
Florida 76, Houston 71
Bob Jordan
Houston 72, Florida 58
Zach Miller
Houston 65, Florida 59
Chris Iseman
Houston 70, Florida 66
Art Stapleton
Florida 77, Houston 71
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: March Madness predictions: Florida vs Houston picks for men’s NCAA bracket
