Florida Gators vs Houston Cougars Pick – 4/7/2025

The last two teams standing in the 2025 NCAA Tournament are the Florida Gators and Houston Cougars. They will play on Monday, April 7, 2025 in this year's national championship game, with the winner set to etch their name in the college basketball history books. With both teams in this Florida vs Houston matchup possessing a ton of depth, this game from the Alamodome in San Antonio could go in either direction.

At DraftKings Sportsbook, Florida is a 1.5-point favorite heading into the national title game. Houston will enter as an underdog for the second time in this Final Four and will look to overcome the odds once again in this matchup between the SEC and Big 12 champions. Here, we break down this matchup between the Gators and Cougars as both teams look to create their One Shining Moment in Texas.

Can Florida Breach Houston's Defense?

The Florida Gators trailed the Auburn Tigers by eight points at halftime of their Final Four matchup on Saturday night. But the Gators stormed back in the second half, wearing down the Tigers with their depth to grab a six-point win to advance to the national title game. Now the Gators are one win away from following up their SEC championship in March with a national championship in April.

To win the national championship game, Florida is going to need another huge game from Walter Clayton Jr. Clayton has scored 30 or more points in back-to-back games for the Gators, helping them to claw their way back from deficits in each of those contests. Here, Clayton will have to find a way to score against another elite defense, but that is nothing new to him based on what we've seen from him all season long.

Protecting the paint will be of vital importance to Florida as well. They have a ton of depth in their frontcourt, but we saw them get into foul trouble on the interior against Maryland earlier in this tournament. With Houston being so adept at getting paint points with J'Wan Roberts, the Gators have to find a way to defend without fouling on the interior.

Houston Looks to Complete Championship Journey

The Houston Cougars looked dead and buried against the Duke Blue Devils in the Final Four. But Houston stormed back from a double-digit deficit in the second half to win and advance to the national championship game. Now the Cougars will look to build on that epic comeback, defeat Florida, and come away with the national title.

Houston's defense was simply relentless down the stretch against Duke, which got them back into the game late. The Cougars have been among the nation's leaders in scoring defense throughout the season, but they took their defense to another level in the final minutes against the Blue Devils. They will need to bring that level of defensive intensity against Florida for all 40 minutes if they are going to finish off their run to the championship.

Florida vs Houston Prediction

We will take Florida to win the national championship game over Houston. The Gators have proven that they can come back from deficits in this tournament and their depth in the frontcourt should cause problems for Houston. Look for Florida to win their first title since the 2000s and for the SEC to complete the best season as a conference in the history of college basketball.