Perth's Alex Condon marches into Big Dance

• Alex Condon's Florida Gators into the National Championship "Big Dance"
• Tyrese Proctor's Duke Blue Devils eliminated in the Final Four
• 11 Australians started the tournament, only one remains

Eleven Australians started their quest to win the US College National Championship in the NCAA Men's March Madness tournament but just one remains — Florida's Alex Condon, who will play for a National Championship against Houston on Tuesday, April 8, at 10.50am (AEST).

Condon made a couple of big defensive plays down the stretch against Auburn before fouling out with just one point in 23 minutes. He had four boards and three assists. Gators teammate Walter Clayton Jr put on a 35-minute clinic going 11-from-18 from the field for a career-high 34 points.

The Gators won 79-73 in the first of the Final Four contests.

Condon was set for an Australian showdown with Duke's Tyrese Proctor but the Blue Devils were stunned by the Houston Cougars 70-67.

Houston has one of the toughest defenses in NCAAM Division 1 and it did the job. Proctor has just seven points on 2-from-8 from the field as was 0-from-4 from deep. Presumptive NBA No1 Draft Pick Cooper Flagg confirmed his status as the US's top prospect with 27 points on 8-from-19 from the field, seven rebounds and four assists.

Thirteen thousand kilometres away, Tyrese's father Roderick sat in his car outside Queensland’s South Pine Stadium streaming the game ahead of daughter Kaila's first game for NSW at the U18 National Championships.

"I was actually watching in the hotel room and, far out, it was right there," Roderick told Code Sports Basketball.

"Tyrese, he’d be very upset and he’d be kicking himself.

"But that’s all right, that’s basketball, you’ve got to have a short memory."

Australians Eliminated:‍

1. St Francis PA (first four): Riley Parker
2. Louisville Cardinals (8 seed): Reyne Smith
3. High Point (13 seed): Josh Ibukunoluwa
4. Montana (14 seed): Jensen Bradtke
5. Saint Mary's Gaels (7 seed): Harry Wessels    
6. Saint Mary's Gaels (7 seed): Joshua Dent    
7. Saint Mary's Gaels (7 seed): Rory Hawke
8. Arizona Wildcats (4 seed): Anthony Dell'Orso
9. BYU Cougars (6 seed): Mawot Mag‍
10. Duke Blue Devils (1 seed): Tyrese Proctor    

Elite 8

Sydney star Tyrese Proctor had 17 points in 36 minutes on 7-from-10 shooting to led the Duke Blue Devils past two seed Alabama 85-65 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

One seed Duke teammate Cooper Flagg is garnering all the attention but Proctor is absolutely getting it done. He added five rebounds, two assists and two steals as four Blue Devils got into double figures: Kon Knueppel (21); Proctor (17); Flagg (16); and Khaman Maluach (14).

Meanwhile, Alex Condon's Florida Gators came from 10 down with 6:38 to go to beat the three seed Texas Tech Raiders 84-79 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.

Condon had seven points in 28 minutes on 2-from-6 from the field, ripped down seven boards, dished an assist, had two steals and a block.

One seed Florida won the game at the free throw line, shooting 25-of-27 (92%) ... as well as Walter Clayton Jr's two incredible clutch threes in the last 90 seconds.

Sweet 16

Australian point guard Tyrese Proctor is through to the Elite 8 after Duke knocked out Arizona's Anthony Dell'Orso's Wildcats 100-93 on Friday, March 28, 2025.

"They've done a really good job creating certainty, and all their young guys have gotten better.," Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said.

"Their vets like [Tyrese] Proctor, Sion James — he's impressive — have gotten better. Even Pat Ngongba has gotten better over the course of the year. They've got a lot of good pieces, and they all fit together."

Proctor's teammate Cooper Flagg, the projected first pick in the NBA Draft, was ridiculously good.

ESPN reported: "Flagg became the first Duke player with 30 points, five rebounds and five assists in an NCAA tournament game since assists became an official statistic in 1984, according to ESPN Research, and just the second player with at least 30 points, five rebounds, five assists and three blocks in an NCAA tournament game since blocks became official in 1986. The other player to do it was UCLA's Ed O'Bannon in 1994.

"That was one of the best tournament performances I've ever coached or been a part of," Duke coach Jon Scheyer said.

Proctor finished with seven points in 37 minutes on 3-from-8 from the field.

Australian centre Alex Condon's Florida Gators are also through to the Elite 8 with a dominant 87-71 win against Maryland in the West Region Final.

Condon played just 14 minutes after tweaking his ankle and spent a lot of time on an exercise bike behind the Gator bench trying to keep it loose.

He finished 3-from-4 from the field for six points, four rebounds and two assists.

March 25, 2025

Australian point guard Tyrese Proctor became the first player since 2010 to make five-plus threes in back-to-back games in March Madness as the Duke Blue Devils rolled into the Sweet 16 with a dominant 89-66 win against ninth-ranked Baylor in the NCAA East Region, Round 2.

Proctor, who was ON FIRE, finished with game high 25 on 7-from-8 from three and an overall 9-from-10 from the field.

The one-seed Blue Devils face Arizona (4), which means Proctor goes up against fellow Australian Anthony Dell'Orso on Friday, March 28, 2025.

Australian centre Alex Condon was solid on both ends of the floor as the Florida Gators eliminated the defending champions UConn 77-75 on Monday, March 24, 2025.

Condon, an NBA draft prospect, had seven rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes to go with five points on 1-from-2 from the field and three free throws.

The Gators move onto the the Sweet 16 against Maryland on Thursday, March 28, 2025 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Three Australian players on the Saint Mary's squad went out in the second row on Monday, March 24, 2025 when the Gaels lost to two-seed Alabama 80-66.

Four Australians remain in the tournament.

RELATED: The 13 Australian women set for the Madness of March in 2025

Saturday, March 22

Proctor was one of the standouts of Saturday's games, hitting six three-pointers on his way to 19 points to lead his side to a dominant 93-49 win over Mount St Mary's.

Proctor also dished out five assists in the victory with Duke now set to face Baylor on Monday at 5.40am (AEDT).

Big man Alex Condon continued the impressive from Australians today, scoring 12 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists in 22 minutes as the Florida Gators beat the Norfolk State Spartans 95-69.

Florida ran out to an early lead with star guard Walter Clayton Jr had 23 points, most of which he scored in the first half. The Gators will take on defending champions UConn on Monday at 3.40am.

St Mary's CA survived a scare from Vanderbilt, winning 59-56 to progress to the second round, where they will play Alabama on Monday morning.

In 22 minutes, Harry Wessells had two points, one assist and two rebounds while fellow Aussie Joshua Dent didn't hit the court.

Anthony Dell'Orso scored nine points as the University of Arizona also made their way through to the next round in dominant fashion, beating Akron 93-65. The Australian guard also had five assists and two rebounds as the Wildcats prepare to take on Oregon in the second round.

March 21, 2025.

Earlier in the week, Mawot Mag's BYU survived the first round, knocking out 11th seed VCU 80-71 in the East Region on

But there are only eight Aussies left as Riley Parker's St. Francis suffered the first madness of March, losing at the buzzer on a desperation, length of the court out of bounds pass that fell to Alabama State to win it at the buzzer.

Reyne Smith's Louisville Cardinals, an eight-seed, were eliminated by the nine-seed Creighton Bluejays 89-75 in the first round of the South Region on Friday, March 21, 2025 while a short time later Josh Ibukunoluwa's 13th-ranked High Point were eliminated by 4th-ranked Purdue 75-63.

Jensen Bradtke's Montana also fell at the first hurdle. The 14th-ranked Grizzlies didn't have enough for three seed Wisconsin 85-66 in the East Region.

NCAA Tournament

There were 68 teams locked in to play in the world famous 68-team college basketball tournament.

Fifteen Australians competed in the 2024 tournament.

There were 54 Australian men playing NCAA basketball at in 2024-25 in the United States.

Sydney-born Tyrese Proctor, 20, has been crucial to leading the Duke Blue Devils (26-3) to No2 in the AP Top 25 in 2024-25. Proctor was instrumental in helping Duke win the ACC Championship.

Proctor plays alongside Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, who is mooted as a No1 NBA Draft pick if he decides to leave college after this season.

Proctor, a Junior, is also a projected NBA draft pick.

Florida big man Alex Condon is playing a significant role for the Gators, who are coming off winning the SEC title.

Three months ago, Condon wasn’t anywhere to be seen on ESPN’s 2025 NBA Mock Draft, now Australian big man and Florida Gators star Alex Condon has risen all the way to a be a predicted first round selection.

Experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo had Condon, a 6’11” Sophomore from Western Australia, slotted to go at pick 26 by the Atlanta Hawks after the big man’s dominant season with Florida.

After sitting out three games after spraining his ankle, Condon copped a brutal elbow in the mouth in an 88-83 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.

"Got pushed back into the training room there with (trainer) Jon (Michelini), and he pushed him back in, put on the mouth guard, and we went back out," Condon told The Gainesville Sun.

"So got them straightened out yesterday in Gainesville.

"Just leaning I could feel them in my tongue. They were just back in my mouth; it was pretty gross.”

Condon will now wear a mouth guard after a metal wire was attached to his teeth.

"I’ve been pretty lucky," Condon added.

"I think especially my freshman year I didn’t have any issues with my body, so just more playing time and more people seeking out to initiate contact with you, it’s gonna happen.

"So just preparing for that and I think, my dad tells me all the time the harder you go in the less likely you are to get hurt, so I’m just taking that with me.”

Junior guard Anthony Dell'Orso, from Melbourne, is averaging 7.7 points per game, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists for the Arizona Wildcats while BYU Cougars (21-8) Senior Mawot Mag, also from Melbourne, is averaging 5.7 points per game on 51.4% from the field and 1.8 boards.

Australian basketball nursery St Mary's Gaels, ranked 21st in the nation, are 27-4. The Gaels have three Australians on their roster: Harry Wessels; Joshua Dent; and Rory Hawke. They've followed in the footsteps of Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Jock Landale, Alex Ducas, Jordan Hunter, Clint Steindl, Emmett Naar, Kyle Bowen and Tanner Krebs who have all suited up for the Californian college.

Senior Reyne Smith, from Ulverstone, Tasmania, is playing major minutes for Louisville Cardinals. He's averaging just under 31 minutes per game, 13.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and almost an assist.

As the March Madness bracket continues to fill out, more Australian players have the potential to chase a National Championship.

Seven-time NBL MVP Andrew Gaze was the first Australian to play in March Madness. Gaze was pivotal in Seton Hall's march to the Final Four in 1989, eventually losing 80-79 in overtime to Glen Rice's Michigan in the Final.

RELATED: The 13 Australian women set for the Madness of March in 2025