With a maxed-out crowd watching from the O’Connell Center and fans across the country glued to their televisions, the Florida Gators brought home the team’s third national title with a 65-63 victory over Houston on Monday night.

One person came one first-round women’s NCAA Tournament game away from perfection in the CBS Sports Bracket Challenge.

You could call them Florida Gator die-hards or just pumped up students. With the Florida men’s basketball team set to take on the Houston Cougars in San Antonio for a shot at a national title, fans in Gainesville are already lining up outside the Exactech Arena hours before the gates open for the University of Florida’s watch party, which is set to kick off at 7 p.m.

The Florida Gators men’s basketball team is just hours away from competing for a National Championship against the Houston Cougars in San Antonio, and the University of Florida is hoping to gather as many members of Gator Nation as possible to celebrate the occasion.

This year, the Florida Gators have had the pleasure of witnessing one of their players do everything possible to cement his name among the college greats: Walter Clayton Jr.

Are you planning on traveling to San Antonio to see the Florida Gators in the Final Four? Tell us your experience looking for game and plane tickets.

The Villanova Wildcats have hired Maryland's Kevin Willard as their new coach.

MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 23 points, including a go-ahead layup with 2:22 left, and Chloe Kitts added 15 points and 11 rebounds to help No. 1 seed South Carolina beat fourth-seeded Maryland 71-67 in the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament.

Dan Hurley’s emotions ran the gamut following his team’s 77-75 loss to Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, which ended UConn’s bid for a third straight national championship.

First-team All-American Walter Clayton Jr. scored 23 points and Florida defeated Norfolk State 95-69, ensuring all four No. 1 seeds made it out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament unscathed.

Robert Wright scored 19 points, V.

Tobacco Road is the center of the NCAA Tournament this week with three women’s first-round sites at Duke, North Carolina and N.

SIU Edwardsville guard Ray'Sean Taylor broke down in tears after his team was routed by Houston in the NCAA Tournament.

A year after earning the first NCAA bid in school history, the Columbia women's basketball team is back in the NCAA Tournament.

With the growth of women in sports and with millions of dollars up for grabs, the attention on women’s college basketball means sports bet markets are getting bigger!

RJ Davis scored 26 points and went 6 of 6 from 3-point range to help North Carolina silence some skeptics with a 95-68 victory over San Diego State in their First Four matchup.

Amarr Knox’s layup with a second left lifted Alabama State to its first NCAA Tournament win, 70-68 over Saint Francis (PA) in a matchup of No. 16 seeds at the First Four.

Kellie Harper has been hired as the new women's basketball coach at Missouri.

Three No. 1 seeds will be in the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

The top seeds continued to roll in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament, including UCLA, South Carolina and TCU.

UCLA is the top overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament.

The college basketball season is winding down, which means March Madness is upon us.

Tyrese Proctor scored 19 points on six 3-pointers, Kon Knueppel added 18 points and No. 1 Duke defeated 13th-ranked Louisville 73-62 on Saturday night to clinch its second Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship in three seasons under Jon Scheyer.

If the Xavier Musketeers get left out of the NCAA Tournament, they’ll look back at their latest game as a missed opportunity.

Colorado State’s winning streak is at 10, and the Rams are headed to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Mountain West’s automatic bid with a victory over Boise State.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is in favor of expanding the men’s NCAA Tournament to 76 teams.

UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and Southern California have all stated their cases for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament with their stellar play this season.

The No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament along with the last spots in the 68-team field will be riding on the outcome of a plethora of conference tournaments this week.

Georgia may have ended its 10-year NCAA Tournament drought by beating Vanderbilt 79-68.

St. John’s coach Rick Pitino wanted his Red Storm to close the regular season with the kind of challenge they could expect to face in the NCAA Tournament.

Women’s basketball teams finally will be paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament each March just like the men have for years under a plan approved Wednesday at the NCAA convention.

Caitlin Clark's No. 22 will be retired in a ceremony Feb. 2 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

USC star JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers headline The Associated Press preseason All-America team that for the first time includes three sophomores in a clear sign of the young talent in a sport coming off a record year of fan interest.

South Carolina is starting the season at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll.

Kansas is No. 1 in the AP Top 25 preseason men's basketball poll ahead of Alabama and two-time defending national champion UConn.

A northern Idaho prosecutor won’t bring hate crime charges against an 18-year-old accused of shouting a racist slur at members of the Utah women’s basketball team while the team was in Idaho to attend the NCAA Tournament.

First-team Associated Press All-American RJ Davis is returning to North Carolina to play his fifth season of eligibility.

Hailey Van Lith is focused on making the USA Basketball 3x3 Olympic team this summer and not worried about where she’ll end up at college next year.

In elementary school, Caitlin Clark wrote down her dreams and goals that included playing in the WNBA one day.

John Meinen has been an avid Iowa basketball fan for decades.

The basketball world can’t get enough of Caitlin Clark and now that the college season is over, next up is the WNBA draft.

South Carolina, Iowa and UConn have finished atop the final AP Top 25 women's basketball poll of the season.

South Carolina's bench wore down Iowa in the national championship game.

Caitlin Clark has been invited to the USA Basketball national team training camp during the Final Four in Cleveland, contingent on Iowa’s season being over.

Caitlin Clark scored 32 points and No. 1 seed Iowa survived one of its worst offensive performances of the season to beat No. 8 seed West Virginia 64-54 on Monday night in a women’s NCAA Tournament second-round game.

Stanford has hired Kyle Smith away from Washington State to take over its struggling men’s basketball program.

We are eyeing five unique things of the tournament itself aside from just wins, losses and who’ll cut down the nets in Arizona.

Reigning national champion Connecticut is back at No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball poll.

South Carolina, Iowa, USC and Texas are the top four teams in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll, a day after all four were chosen as the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament that begins later this week.

Duquesne earned an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time in 47 years, beating fifth-seeded seeded VCU 57-51 to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship.

Conference tournament season took an even more chaotic turn — and that’s bad news for at least a couple teams on the bubble.

North Carolina State is heading back to the NCAA Tournament after beating fourth-ranked North Carolina 84-76 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game.

With most of the major conferences having their tournaments finished, there are a few anxious teams waiting to see if their names will be called for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday when the field is announced.

Brian Dutcher has experienced all 25 seasons of Mountain West basketball and he’s never seen one as crazy as this one.

Iowa star Caitlin Clark is taking her scoring records to March Madness.

Members of the women’s basketball community say the new NCAA eight-year deal with ESPN that will pour an estimated $65 million annually into the sport reflects the growth of the game.

An NCAA review has concluded that the officiating in the national championship game between LSU and Iowa fell short of expectations.

LSU All-American Angel Reese has a new endorsement deal with a major shoe and athletic apparel company.

Kansas is the preseason No. 1 in the AP men's college basketball poll.

Iowa will attempt to set the all-time women’s basketball attendance record when it hosts DePaul in an outdoor exhibition at 69,000-seat Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 15.

An NCAA infractions panel has imposed a three-game suspension for Memphis coach Penny Hardaway for recruiting violations tied to two in-home visits with a prospect two years ago.

The WNBA and Scripps have signed a multiyear deal to televise Friday night regular-season games on ION.

Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith has entered the transfer portal.

Zach Edey of Purdue has won the John R.

The attorneys who beat the NCAA in the Supreme Court have filed a new class-action antitrust lawsuit against the association and the five wealthiest college sports conferences.

UConn's NCAA champion basketball team arrived back on campus Tuesday to more than 7,000 cheering fans inside Gampel Pavilion, the team's home arena.

There was a short list of believers in the potential of a rebuilt UConn roster before the season started.

The Cinderellas certainly had their moments in this March Madness.

UConn had its way with San Diego State in a dominating first half, threatening to turn the national championship game into a monumental rout.

San Diego State was done in by a terrible shooting drought in the first half of Monday night's national title game against UConn.

Adama Sanogo powered UConn to the school's fifth national title with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State.

Both Connecticut and San Diego State used an offseason of work in the transfer portal to bolster teams that have reached the NCAA title game.

Connecticut guard Jordan Hawkins says he had no doubt he was going to play in Saturday night's 72-59 win against Miami in the Final Four despite battling a stomach illness.

Lamont Butler hit the biggest shot in San Diego State history, putting the Aztecs in the national championship game for the first time.

Nijel Pack might need to up his shoe game.

FAU’s debut at the Final Four ended in the most excruciating manner imaginable.

Lamont Butler made a jumper at the buzzer, sending San Diego State to its first national championship game with a 72-71 win over fellow mid-major Florida Atlantic in the Final Four.

The saying goes that defense wins championships.

Shaka Smart was voted the AP men's basketball coach of the year after leading Marquette to regular-season and Big East Tournament titles.

The college basketball season started with familiar faces and ended up with an unexpected Final Four.

The NCAA has gotten mostly positive reviews for its new women's Sweet 16 format during March Madness.

South Carolina is two wins away from completing the 10th undefeated season in women's college basketball history.

A person with knowledge of the deal says Texas has reached an agreement with Rodney Terry to be the Longhorns’ full-time head basketball coach.

Caitlin Clark put on a show with 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to help No. 2 seed Iowa beat fifth-seeded Louisville 97-83 and send the the Hawkeyes to their first women's Final Four in 30 years.

Jordan Miller scored 27 points and made a series of crucial foul shots down the stretch as Miami rallied to an 88-81 victory over Texas for a spot in the Final Four.

Everyone’s heard of UConn.

Dan Hurley got choked up when asked about his dad on the eve of UConn’s Sweet 16 game.

Florida Atlantic has defied expectation and description all season.

Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn overwhelmed its fourth straight NCAA Tournament opponent, earning its first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga.

Caitlin Clark scored 31 points and No. 2 seed Iowa shook disappointments the past two seasons and reached the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament with an 87-77 win over Colorado in the Seattle 4 Regional semifinals.

Nijel Pack and Miami hit shots from near and far against the stingiest defense in the country to beat Houston 89-75 in the Sweet 16, leaving the NCAA Tournament without a single No. 1 seed among its final eight teams for the first time since seeding began in 1979.

Darrion Trammell and San Diego State used a dominant defensive performance to knock top overall seed Alabama out of the NCAA Tournament, bottling up All-America freshman Brandon Miller in a 71-64 victory in the Sweet 16.

Alexis Morris hit two foul shots with 10 seconds to play as No. 3 seed LSU reached the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008, beating second-seeded Utah 66-63, Down 64-63, the Utes had a chance to back in front, but Jenna Johnson — a near 75% foul shooter — missed both attempts with 4.7 seconds to go.

UCLA freshman Kiki Rice is checking in periodically from the NCAA Tournament as told to AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg.

Julian Strawther hit a 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to answer a 3-pointer by UCLA’s Amari Bailey, lifting Gonzaga to a wild 79-76 win over UCLA in the Sweet 16.

Players and coaches in the NCAA Tournament may be breathing life into a new controversy: Inflategate.

Iowa State was quick to say that its miserable shooting performance in the NCAA Tournament had nothing to do with some wonky rims in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Notre Dame is finalizing a deal to make Penn State’s Micah Shrewsberry its new men’s basketball coach, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

Princeton forward Tosan Evbuomwan spent three college seasons fighting through one disappointment after another.

Johnell Davis scored 29 points, Alijah Martin added 14 and Florida Atlantic ended Fairleigh Dickinson’s magical March by outlasting the No. 16 seed 78-70 in the NCAA Tournament.