The NCAA men’s basketball national championship stage is set, as No. 1 seeds Florida and Houston will go head-to-head at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Monday night (8:50 p.m. ET on CBS).
It’ll mark just the third meeting all time between the two programs, with the Cougars holding a 2-0 edge by virtue of their victories over the Gators during a home-and-home series in 1970 and 1973.
Houston, which is looking to capture the first national title in program history, will be outfitted in its white home uniforms on Monday. The Cougars previously reached the championship game in 1983 and 1984, falling to N.C. State while wearing white in the former and Georgetown while wearing red in the latter.
Florida, meanwhile, will wear its blue road uniforms this evening as they look to win their third title. The Gators previously wore blue uniforms in their championship game loss to Michigan State in 2000 before capturing back-to-back titles with wins over UCLA (blue uniforms) in 2006 and Ohio State (white) in 2007.
Although it has no impact on tonight’s game, one thing working in Florida’s favor is that 19 of the last 21 national champions have the colour blue on their uniforms, with Louisville in 2013 and Baylor in 2021 being the exceptions.
Houston also uses blue as a secondary color, but it was phased out of the Cougars’ uniforms along with the redesign of their interlocking “UH” logo in 2012. They currently have black alternate uniforms, which were worn in their semifinal win over Duke.
Photo courtesy of @MFinalFour on X/Twitter.
