The 2025 men's Final Four was one of the best we've seen in quite some time. The team trailing at halftime in all three games won, and we got a pair of absolute classics in Houston's comeback win over Duke and Florida's comeback win over Houston . Monday's Gators-Cougars title game was impossibly gripping and physical, just as a game between these two experienced teams was meant to be. They boasted two of the best defenses in the country and made life as difficult as possible for each other all the way to the end. Granted, it was a bit of a ref show in the middle, as college basketball games tend to be -- after just four fouls in the first half, we got 13 in the first seven minutes of the second -- but it was edge-of-your-seat stuff all the way. It probably wasn't, however, one of the 50 best Final Four games of all time. The bar is ridiculously high in that regard, and Monday's title game didn't really give us an ending -- Houston didn't get a shot off in its final three possessions, and Florida managed to win despite scoring just three points in the final two minutes. It was a thriller all the same, and Houston-Duke assured 2025 of marquee placement on the list below. Based on dramatic endings and upsets, here are my 50 best Final Four games of all time, stretching back to a time before the final weekend had a name at all. From Utah-Dartmouth '44 to Houston's comeback over Duke, we've been watching late-tournament thrillers for eight decades. Let's recognize the best of the best.
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