Final Four 2025 vs. Final Four 2008 – Similar but Different

History often repeats itself. It’s been a long time since we’ve had four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four. In fact, before this weekend’s Final Four gets underway, the last time it happened was in 2008. That’s 16 tournaments ago. 

A lot has changed in the college basketball world since then and the 2025 Final Four may actually have less in common with the 2008 Final Four than you think. Sure, it’s four No. 1 seeds, but that may be where the similarities between 2025 and 2008 end.

Revisiting the 2008 Final Four

In 2008, Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA all advanced to the Final Four. It was the first time since the NCAA expanded the tournament to 64 teams in 1985 that four No. 1s made it to the national semifinals. Those four teams, incidentally, made their way to San Antonio, which is also the site of this year’s Final Four.

While that is extremely cool – all No. 1 seeds only happened twice and both times the Final Four was in San Antonio – this year’s four teams are very different from the four from 17 years ago. One of the big differences is that this time around, there is only one blueblood program – Duke.

Kansas, UCLA, and North Carolina were joined by Memphis, which was coached by John Calipari at the time. At that time, Calipari joked that the teams in the Final Four that year owned 17 national championships. The joke, of course, was that Kansas, UCLA, and North Carolina had 17 combined titles and Memphis had none. 

In 2025, Duke is the only blueblood program among the four. Florida did win back-to-back national titles under Billy Donovan in 2006 and 2007, but they are not one of college basketball’s most storied programs. Neither is Houston or Auburn, though both have some history.

Preseason Polls Got it Right in 2008

In the USA Today preseason college basketball top 25, the top four teams were North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis, and Kansas. None of those teams slipped out of the top 10 during the season. Just about every other media service picked it the same way. 

Heading into this season, the initial coaches’ poll had Kansas, Alabama, UConn, and Houston as the top four. The Jayhawks had a rough season and wound up as a No. 7 seed in the tournament. They were ousted in the first round by No. 10 Arkansas.

UConn was a two-time defending national champion but, like Kansas, struggled. The Huskies were a No. 8 seed in the tournament. They won their first game but lost to Florida in a second-round game that finished with some controversy. Alabama was eliminated by Duke in the Elite Eight. 

Duke was ranked fifth in preseason polls. Auburn was No. 11. The Tigers Final Four opponent Florida were ranked No. 21 at the beginning of the season. None of these teams are underdogs, but when this season started, none of this year’s Final Four teams were among the top four in the country.

Upsets vs. Chalk

The 2008 NCAA tournament was filled with a number of upsets prior to the Final Four. How about No. 10 Davidson? The Wildcats beat Gonzaga in Round 1, took down No. 2 Georgetown in Round 2 and advanced to the Elite Eight with a win over No. 3 Wisconsin. Davidson’s best player? Yeah, a guy by the name of Stephen Curry. He led Davidson to a near upset, 59-57, of Kansas in the Midwest Regional final.

Western Kentucky and Villanova were 12th seeds, but both joined Davidson in the Sweet 16. The 2008 tournament had more upsets than this year’s Big Dance. The only Sweet 16 team seeded higher than No. 6 in 2025 was Arkansas. The Razorbacks were the No. 10 seed in the West Region where they beat Kansas and No. 2 St. John’s before blowing a double-digit lead in an 85-83 loss to Texas Tech.

This year’s tournament has been one for the chalk. In the 60 games played thus far, favorites are 48-12 straight up. That includes a perfect 12-0 SU in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight game combined. 

The Transfer Portal

In 2008, schools recruited from the high school ranks. Kansas head coach signed a couple big-time recruits like Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush. Calipari had an elite recruit by the name of Derrick Rose. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love led UCLA and Tyler Hansbrough was a blue-chip star for North Carolina.

All of those players were recruited out of high school and many of them were upperclassmen when they reached the Final Four in 2008. Auburn’s best player, Johni Broome, began his college basketball career at Morehead State. Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. was at Iona before coming to the Gators. 

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson still likes to recruit high school players and develop them, but even he has a couple key transfers in Milos Uzan and L.J. Cryer. It was high school recruiting in 2008. Nowadays, teams get their best players out of the transfer portal.

Coaches

The lineup of coaches in the 2008 Final Four is a Who’s Who of some of the best ever in the game. Roy Williams had won his first national championship in 2005 and would go on to win two more. Self would win the first of two national titles in the 2008 Final Four and Calipari would win his first title in 2012 while at Kentucky.

The 2025 Final Four coaching lineup has zero national titles. We’ve got the elder statesmen – Bruce Pearl, 65, of Auburn and Sampson, 69, from Houston. Between the two of them, they’ve been to five Final Fours, but neither has ever even reached the national championship game. Of the four coaches in San Antonio this year, Pearl is the only one with any national title. He won one while serving as head coach of Division II Southern Indiana in 1995.

Then, there is the youth of Florida’s Todd Golden, 39, and Duke’s Jon Scheyer, 37. Golden had never won an NCAA tournament game until this season. This is Scheyer’s first trip to the Final Four since taking over for the legendary Mike Krzyzewski at Duke three years ago. 

An Epic Final Four?

Well, let’s hope so. In 2008, the semifinal games were both blowouts. Kansas beat North Carolina by 18, 84-66. Brandon Rush, another elite recruit for Self, led the Jayhawks with 25 points.

In the other semifinal, Memphis also won by double figures, beating UCLA 78-63. Chris Douglas-Robers led the Tigers with 28 points and Rose added 25 as Memphis became the first college basketball team to register 38 wins in a single season.

While the semifinals were blowouts, the championship game was outstanding. It would be the seventh title game that would be decided in overtime. Chalmers hit a three-pointer for Kansas with 2.1 seconds remaining to tie the game at 63-all. Kansas scored the first six points of overtime and went on to win 75-68.