Next week, four teams with four unique stories will go to Glendale, Arizona, with the national title on the line.
For UConn, it's a chance to become the first team since Florida in 2006 and 2007 to win back-to-back championships. But it's more than that. If UConn's dominance continues, it will make the case that it is one of the greatest teams we've seen in recent men's college basketball history.
Purdue flushed the memory of last year's upset loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round of the NCAA tournament to earn the school's third trip to the Final Four — coach Matt Painter's first.
Alabama is also in the national semifinals. In men's basketball. It's the first time in school history.
NC State's magical run is even more stunning when you consider it is happening 41 years after Jim Valvano beat the odds and led the Wolfpack to the 1983 national title.
Here's a deeper look at the 2024 men's Final Four, and where these teams stand compared to one another.
1. UConn Huskies (35-3)
Original seed: No. 1 overall seed (East)
Path to Final Four: Defeated 16-seed Stetson 91-52; def. 9-seed Northwestern 75-58; def. 5-seed San Diego State 82-52; def. 3-seed Illinois 77-52
Yes, there was a 30-0 run. And it was one of more memorable runs we've ever seen in this sport. And Illinois wasn't some afterthought: Brad Underwood's squad had won the Big Ten tournament, and it had just defeated Iowa State, the top defense in America.
None of that mattered. Because anything a team has achieved in the past does not seem to matter against UConn.
It's not just that the Huskies executed that 30-0 run against a good team. It's how they did it. Alex Karaban hit a 3-pointer on one possession, and then Cam Spencer grabbed an offensive rebound and
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