Arizona, Michigan and Duke had looked like a clear top tier in college basketball as conference play began. All three spent time atop the AP Top 25 and went on to claim a No. 1 seed in March Madness.
Yet only the Wildcats and Wolverines have reached the sport's biggest stage.
The Blue Devils' stunning loss to UConn on Braylon Mullins' last-second 3-pointer ended the title push for the tournament's top overall seed, leaving Arizona and Michigan as the only
1-seeds to reach the Final Four. That comes a year after all four top seeds reached the Final Four for only the second time since seeding began in 1979.
Second-seeded UConn and No. 3 seed Illinois kept this from being an all-chalk Final Four, though it is again a gathering of favorites compared to past years.
Before these past two years, the tournament's final weekend featured at least one team seeded No. 4 or worse every year dating to 2010 — including a team seeded eighth or lower in each of the four Final Fours since the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 tournament.
Here are storylines to watch on each of the teams that will play in Saturday's national semifinals in Indianapolis:
The Wildcats (36-2) won the West Region, continuing a dominant fifth year under Tommy Lloyd. They spent nearly half the season at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 (nine of 19 polls), entered the tournament as the second overall seed and have won all four tournament games by 12 or more points.
That has reconnected the program with some of its peaks under the late Lute Olson, including the program's last Final Four appearance in 2001.
“His legacy in Tucson is so powerful. He’s the guy," Lloyd said after Saturday's win against Purdue. "There’s others before him, but he’s the main catalyst to make our program the center of the community."
“When I got the job, I was, like, wow, people in Tucson really want to like their basketball coach, and it wasn’t a contentious relationship at all. They want to love you. The reason they want to love you is because they loved Lute so much and he meant so much to the community.”
The Wolverines (35-3) won the Midwest bracket with a dominating four-game run, with Michigan scoring at least 90 points in every game. That made Dusty May's squad the first team to score 90 points in every game through to the Elite Eight since UConn did it in 1995 before falling 102-96 to eventual champion UCLA.
“Just continuing to create offense for each other, whether it's through screening, cutting, passing, whatever the case,” May said before the regional-final win against Tennessee.
“I think just our guys have found a good rhythm and our role guys are making shots. ... And our stars have elevated their game as well.”
The Huskies (33-5) rallied from 19 down to stun Duke in the East Region final, capping a two-game grind through the nation's capital that included a tough win against Michigan State in the Sweet 16. That has brought UConn to the Final Four for the third time in four years, with the previous two resulting with the 2023 and 2024 championships.
Getting UConn out has proven difficult at this point, too.
The Huskies have now won 18 straight tournament games when reaching at least the second weekend going back to the Kemba Walker-led 2011 title run and another championship in 2014. And there's championship experience on the roster with Alex Karaban from the recent repeat title run.
“We’ve had to win a lot of close games throughout the year,” Huskies coach Dan Hurley said of the Duke comeback. “And I think that that honestly just gave us a level of comfortability in a game that it’s a one-possession game, it’s a two-possession game, we’ve been in this spot before.”
The Fighting Illini (28-8) pushed through the South bracket, beating Houston in its home city in the Sweet 16 before beating Iowa in an all-Big Ten regional final.
The Illini's size — KenPom ranks them as the nation's tallest team — has shown up on the glass and defensively in this tournament run. Illinois has outrebounded Penn, VCU, Houston and Iowa by an average 16.3 per game while holding them to 38.1% shooting, the best of the four remaining teams in each area.
That combination has brought Illinois to the Final Four for the first time since the 2005 team won 37 games before falling to North Carolina in the title game.
“Rebounding's always been something we tried to be good at all year, but I think defensively is where we’ve really made an impact,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said.
“I think it can wear on people, it can make things difficult. We’ve relied on that all year being the biggest team in the country.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
