College Basketball

Jon Rothstein Picks Houston In His March Madness 2025 Bracket

Dan Girolamo Sports Editor

Published19 Mar 2025

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As Jon Rothstein loves to say, “This is March.” Rothstein shared his bracket, picks, and predictions for March Madness 2025.

Jon Rothstein Breaks Down Each Region

Rothstein appeared on Monday’s edition of Pardon My Take and revealed his predictions for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Rothstein assigned nicknames to every region.

First, there’s the South Region, aka The Region of Depth.

“Auburn, Michigan State, Texas A&M. Really deep rotations on all of these teams,” Rothstein said about the South Region. “All of these teams can really go into their bench.”

In the Elite Eight, Rothstein likes Tom Izzo and No. 2 Michigan State to defeat Bruce Pearl and No. 1 Auburn.

Per Rothstein, the West Region is the Region of Prestige. Four coaches in this region — Dan Hurley, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, and Bill Self — have all won championships.

Despite Pitino’s magical year, Rothstein has No. 2 St. John’s ultimately falling to No. 1 Florida in the West Regional Final.

The East Region is the Region of Firepower because Duke, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Oregon have explosive offensives.

Rothstein believes this region will come down to No. 1 Duke and No. 3 Wisconsin in a rematch of the 2015 National Championship. The CBS Sports analyst has Duke getting to the Final Four.

The Midwest Region is the Region of Toughness.

“Kelvin Sampson, Houston. Rick Barnes, Tennessee. Mick Cronin, UCLA. Brad Underwood, Illinois,” Rothstein explained. “This is a dynamite region.”

Ultimately, Rothstein believes No. 1 Houston beats No. 6 Illinois in the Elite Eight.