I'm going to be honest with you, I had a version of this article virtually written with Duke being in the National Championship

The Houston Cougars completed one of the biggest comebacks in one of the biggest games in NCAA Tournament history. Now, they'll be the ones to take on the Gators

If you're looking for a pick'em game to get you started early, it seems like we'll have a good one on Monday night. The Houston Cougars completed one of the biggest comebacks in one of the biggest games in NCAA Tournament history on Saturday to punch their ticket to the Final Four.

The Cougars will take on the Florida Gators on Monday night at 7:08 p.m. ET in hopes of winning the program's first national championship since 1968. Houston is the runner-up in back-to-back years in 1983 and 1984 and will now return to the final for the first time since.

They'll face a Gators team that battled through one of the best college basketball conferences in recent history all season long and started playing its best at the perfect time. Florida tore through the SEC Tournament and then carried that momentum into the NCAA Tournament. Now, they are in the national championship for the first time since 2007.

Florida vs. Houston National Championship Opening Odds

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Florida was second on the odds list behind Duke heading into the tournament, but based on how impressive the Cougars have been the past two weeks, this game is virtually set as a pick'em. DraftKings has Houston as a small favorite at -115, but FanDuel has Florida posted as the favorite at -111. Regardless of where the line eventually closes, I'm confident in saying it'll be a near coin flip come Monday night.

These two schools met on the court just twice in their history and haven't faced each other since 1973, when the Cougars won in a 97-73 blowout in Houston.

Strap in. Monday night is going to be must-watch television.

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