INDIANAPOLIS – Now we know the addition it took for the past weekend to come up with a Final Four – three convincing wins plus one miracle. The narratives to come in Indianapolis . . .
It is the Final Four of the expected.
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One semifinal showdown, anyway. Michigan and Arizona began making the ground shake in November and not much has changed. They’ll be in Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, with a combined record of 71-5, like hungry diners showing up for their reserved table.
Now they must deal with one another. Michigan was just minutes past burying Tennessee on Sunday and Yaxel Lendeborg was a freshly-named MVP of the Midwest region as he stood on the United Center court, already thinking about next weekend.
“They’ve got a bunch of NBA guys, we’ve got a bunch of NBA guys. It’s going to be a fun matchup. I hope everybody’s ready to play, ‘cause I am.”
The best record for a national champion in the past 50 years – going back to Indiana’s perfect 1976 season – was Kentucky’s 38-2 in 2012. Arizona can match that with a title.
It is the Final Four of a most familiar name on a most unfamiliar road.
Connecticut stormed to the 2023 and ’24 national championships by throttling anyone in the way, winning all 12 NCAA Tournament games by double digits. “They just smashed everybody,” Dan Hurley said. “We just ran through this tournament like it was nothing.”
Not this time. Consider how the Huskies spent their weekend in Washington, D.C. A 19-point lead blown, a 19-point deficit erased. They held on to escape Michigan State by four, then beat Duke in the last second on Braylon Mullins’ 3-pointer that was sent directly to the Immortals Room at March Madness headquarters.
UConn has turned into survivors-and-advancers. “Just a resilient team that's got a lot of confidence in close, late games,” Hurley said.
It is the Final Four of astonishing spurts of dominance.
Michigan outscored Tennessee by 22 points in the first half Sunday, had a 21-0 run and won by 33. Arizona outscored Purdue by 22 points in the second half Saturday night. Illinois went on a 17-0 run against Houston. Houston. And Connecticut was the first team in history to beat a No. 1 seed who had led by 15 points or more at halftime
Of the 16 NCAA Tournament victories that have carried these teams to this week, 14 were by double digits, the only winning margins under 10 belonging to UConn. The other three teams sailed to Indianapolis by a winning average of 20.8 points.
“We’re rolling pretty good right,” Ivan Kharchenkov said. He meant Arizona but he could have meant any of the four.
It is the Final Four of breakthroughs.
Arizona had waited 25 years to get back to this event, falling five times in the Elite Eight. Illinois had waited 21 years. At the age of 62, Illini coach Brad Underwood had spent much of a lifetime chasing this moment. “It’s better than I dreamt it would ever be,” he said. “Thirty-nine years in the business and that's all I'm going to say about my side of this.”
It’s the Final Four of programs that have had to pass through crossroads to get here.
Two years ago, Michigan was 8-24. Then came Dusty May and a bunch of transfers who fit together. “From 8-24 to the Final Four. I feel like that’s probably going to be something we put on shirts one day,” the Wolverines’ Nimari Burnett said Sunday.
👀 LOOK BACK: Yaxel Lendebord scores 27 points to send Michigan to the 2026 Final Four
Illinois started this decade having missed six consecutive NCAA Tournaments, before Underwood’s program clicked in. Arizona struggled through the breakup with Sean Miller before Tommy Lloyd came aboard. Connecticut weathered a stormy 2024-25 season when Hurley’s sideline demeanor became the issue.
It’s the Final Four of historic opportunity.
Connecticut could make it seven national championships in the past 27 tournaments and three of the past four. UCLA and Kentucky dynastic numbers. Plus there is the uncanny Huskies knack for almost never losing once they get to this stage. They have played 13 games at the Final Four. They have lost one.
The Big Ten hasn’t seen a champion in 26 seasons. But with Michigan and Illinois, now it can. They could even end up facing one another in the title game. That would be the first one-conference Monday night in 38 years.
The West Coast has gone 29 years without a champion, back to Arizona in 1997. Now the Wildcats have returned to try to end the drought.
Dusty May, Brad Underwood, Tommy Lloyd. They all have a chance to become the 54th member of the club of national championship coaches. With a third, Hurley would be among the top seven all-time in titles.
It’s the Final Four of second chances.
Dusty May made it this far three years ago with Florida Atlantic. Remember how that ended? A San Diego State buzzer-beater. He’d like a different ending, please. After Michigan confirmed its Final Four spot Sunday, May talked of the “slippery slope of being happy and content that we're there, but also knowing you still have work to do for us to accomplish what could be -- our ultimate goal is to be playing on Monday.
“We have a sign in our locker room that says ‘April habits.’ And from day one, we've challenged these guys to develop championship-level habits that would allow us to win a Big Ten championship, and would also allow us to turn the calendar from March to April. And now we've put ourselves in position to do that.”
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It’s the Final Four of freshmen.
The splendor of the freshman class has been a constant topic of national conversation going back to opening day on November 3 when Arizona’s Koa Peat threw 30 points at Florida. And so it still goes.
Most Outstanding Player of the South region? Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, who was not often mentioned when the season began among the top newcomers. But that changed about the time he scored 46 points at Purdue. “Did I know a 178-pound kid coming in was going to be this? I didn't,” Underwood said of Wagler, who scored 25 points against Iowa Saturday.
Most Outstanding Player of the West region? Arizona’s Peat. For that matter, three of the Wildcats’ top four scorers were freshmen.
“People remind me all the time, like, did you realize your three freshmen were the leading scorer last game? No, I didn't realize that,” Lloyd said. “When I'm writing up lineup cards and whatever, or game plans, I don't write freshman next to their name, either. I just know they're really good basketball players.”
UConn’s Braylon Mullins is a freshman, too. You might have noticed what he was up to Sunday.
By the way, only five freshmen have ever been named Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four, and it hasn’t happened since Duke’s Tyus Jones 11 years ago.
Mirkovic pulls Keaton Wagler's defender away off the screen for the open three 👌
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB)
Something has to give now, with the inexorable forces of these four now colliding with one another.
Take Michigan.
The Wolverines go into the Final Four having hit 90 on all four tournament games. No one had done that in 37 years, back to 1989 when it was accomplished by . . . Michigan. Those Wolverines won the national championship.
Sunday was Michigan’s 16th win this season by at least 20 points, many built with the same kind of tidal wave that swept away Tennessee. Suddenly it seemed like November in Las Vegas and Michigan was running over San Diego State by 40 points, Auburn by 30 and Gonzaga by 40 in consecutive days. “I definitely felt those vibes,” Burnett said. From that moment four months ago, Michigan was an expected guest this week in Indianapolis.
Take Arizona.
The Wildcats aren’t much for 3-pointers and have made only 23 the the entire NCAA tournament but still are averaging nearly 90 points a game and their four wins the first two weeks came by 39, 12, 21 and 15 points. How then? Listen to the latest victim.
“They get in transition and they kill you. They get on the glass and kill you,” Purdue’s Matt Painter said, “They've just lived in the paint, just lived in there.”
Their relentless nature forces opponents teams into an impossible dilemma; foul or get rolled over. Arizona has made 99 free throws in the tournament. It’s opponents have tried only 60.
Lloyd had a story about halftime Saturday, when his team was down seven to Purdue.
“This is when we're at our best. I said, `guys, the coaching staff and I are going to leave right now. You guys got a few minutes to talk amongst yourselves and kind of figure this deal out, and let's go kick their ass in the second half.”
Which they did.
“I was literally a spectator in that second half. That's what it felt like,” Lloyd said. “The most powerful thing in a team sport is a player-led program.
“These guys have a way about them. There's a seriousness about them.”
Take Illinois.
The Illini have wiped out their tournament opponents by a 65-rebound gap on the glass, and that includes 60 offensive rebounds. Sixty extra chances to score. They have outscored teams by 63 points in the second half. Sooner or later, the other team breaks. Even Houston.
Maybe some of that comes from Underwood, whose fire is what drew Wagler to the Illinois fold. “He’s super competitive and that's what I like about him," he said. "He hates to lose. I hate to lose. So it just combined really well. Just talking to him just throughout the whole recruiting process, I knew that this was the place I wanted to be.”
Take Connecticut.
In early February, the Huskies had pushed toward the top with a 22-1 record looking ready to join Arizona, Michigan and Duke in the top tier for a nice, round number of four. Among the 22 wins was a 74-61 whipping of Illinois, Saturday's opponent. Then came a few Big East potholes. They lost twice to St. John’s, once by 20. They were beaten by a Marquette team that finished 12-20, and Hurley was ejected. This was starting to look a bit familiar.
But then it was March, and UConn knows March. It might as well be Alex Karaban’s middle name.
OH MY GOODNESS 😱
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB)
UCONN LEADSSSS UNBELIEVABLE
The other day, before Duke, before the comeback, before Braylon Mullins, Hurley had discussed in detail the journey of the past two years.
“The way you prepare your team, the standard of practice, what's acceptable in terms of the efforts that we make and the level of preparation, the willingness to give everything you have for what the team needs this time of year during the ‘we’ season, not the ‘me’ season --- the ‘me’ season is coming, portal is going to open, and the NIL negotiations will begin -- that will never change.
“I think for me the focus with this team that I've never gotten away from -- which caused me to coach really poorly last year-- was just get the most out of your team. You're not always going to have the best team in the country. You're not always going to have the '24 team, and you can't coach your team mad the whole year. When you go back-to-back and your ego is so wrapped up in a threepeat dynasty, anything less than a national championship is unacceptable. Just a warped way of thinking.
“I give myself the grace. I give the team the grace of let's just be the best that we could be with what we put together, have the best season we could possibly have, and enjoy the journey with each team. It's taken a lot of pressure off."
Still, one 3-pointer certainly made everything a lot more fun.
🤯 WANT MORE? Here's 7 reasons why Mullins' shot will go down in history
That four-team mixture of power and aura will now be centered in one building, In the end, this is a Final Four of the chance to do something unforgettable. Who survives this field of heavyweights will be instant legends back home. Maybe, in three cases, with an argument to the best team who has ever worn their school’s uniform. Or in UConn’s situation, maybe the most magic-touched of all the Huskies champions, and the third of the seven to go through Duke.
“We got told we’ve got to bring the nets home to be the best team,” Lendeborg said. “So that’s what we’re going to go out there and try to do.”
He meant Michigan, but three more teams are headed to Indianapolis with the exact same idea.
