The Final Four in Tampa Bay, Florida is made up of three No. 1 seeds — UCLA , South Carolina and Texas. UConn, however, is the betting favorite to cut down the nets as the sole No. 2 seed remaining.

The UCLA Bruins are prepared to make history Friday night when they tip off in the program's first Final Four game against the UConn Huskies at Amalie Arena in

The Women's Final Four tips off on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET, with South Carolina favored over Texas. UConn is laying 7.5 points vs. UCLA in the late game.

South Carolina Part IV — and while the teams have come to know each other, their experience at this stage varies widely.

The NCAA Final Four is similar to a bowl game during football season in many regards. One is that the players are celebrated everywhere they go and showered with free merchandise and swag.

Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston are here along the River Walk for college basketball’s 2025 Final Four, which begins Saturday and finishes Monday. Kentucky is not here, of course. New coach Mark Pope engineered an impressive first season from scratch to reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, but landed two wins short of its San Antonio goal.

And while that 2019 team crashed the Final Four with relentless turnover-forcing defense and ceaseless three-point shooting, this year's team is just super efficient on both ends of the floor, a seven man-rotation consisting of six grown men and one free-wheeling freshman whose permanent green light could be what wins (or loses) them a title.

Bruce Pearl of Auburn and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were looking to resurrect their careers after being handed show-cause penalties by the NCAA for recruiting violations.