NCAA analyst Jay Bilas puts Dan Hurley’s 2x NCAA champion UConn ahead of Todd Golden’s Florida

Todd Golden’s Florida Gators are the 2025 national champions, but NCAA analyst Jay Bilas picked Dan Hurley's UConn as a better team. UConn won back-to-back national championships (2023 and 2024) and entered the 2025 tournament as defending champions.

However, the Huskies' quest for a historical three-peat ultimately failed after they were knocked out by the eventual champions during the second round of the tournament.

In an Instagram video that was posted on Monday, Bilas explained why UConn is a better team than Florida.

"Is Florida better than UConn's championship teams the last two years? UConn's back-to-back? I'm not sure I would say that. UConn ripped through both of those tournaments in each year with nothing less than double-digit wins in each game. Nobody's ever done that before. They did it two years in a row. They went 12 NCAA Tournament games with double-digit wins," Bilas said.

The ESPN analyst also said that the 2025 champions, Florida, were not as dominant as UConn, having endured close games where they could have lost.

"You know, Florida had really close games and in a couple of games where you can argue maybe they should have lost. But yet, they were able to win. So, I don't think Florida was as dominant this year as UConn was in 2023 and 2024," he said.

Bilas concluded that there are different levels of champions and not every champion would win in another year.

Dan Hurley reacts to UConn's latest announcement

Former men's NCAA back-to-back champions UConn had a difficult 2024-25 season. The Huskies' woes began during the Maui Invitational, where they lost all three games.

Then they lost their Big East title and ultimately failed to defend their national championship title after being beaten 77-75 by eventual champions, Florida, in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

On Tuesday, UConn announced the decision to hire Mike Nardi as an assistant coach. Head coach Dan Hurley praised Nardi's addition to the team, saying the former professional basketball player would bring "a unique perspective" to UConn because he had been a "part of winning under the brightest lights."

"Mike has been a part of winning under the brightest lights and on the biggest stages as both a player and as a coach," Hurley said per UConn writer Joe Arruda. "He will bring a unique perspective to help us pursue our championship goals, and I can’t wait for him to start working with our players."

Nardi played basketball in the Netherlands and Italy before joining Hall of Fame head coach Jay Wright's coaching staff at Villanova for 10 years.

He started off as the director of student-athlete development in 2015-16 before becoming the video coordinator (2016-17), director of basketball operations (2017-18) and assistant coach.