Sixty-eight teams came into March Madness to win a championship. Who were the Final Four?. The Uconn Huskies, Alabama Crimson Tide, North Carolina State Wolfpack, and the Purdue Boilermakers If you still don’t know the winner…read on!
One of the most surprising stories of this year’s March Madness is that the 11-seeded NC State made it to the final 4. A month ago, NC State’s season was just about over, and there was a very small possibility of making it to the NCAA tournament. The Wolfpack would most likely part ways with their head coach, Kevin Keatts, because of another disappointing season to miss out on the tournament. Only one thing could save the Wolfpack’s season, and that was to win the ACC tournament for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. NC State finished the regular season with an average of 17-14 seasons and a 9-11 record in the ACC conference, which is the 10th-best team record in their conference out of 16 teams.
The Wolfpack managed to make a remarkable run in the ACC tournament, winning all 5 of their games to clinch a spot in the tournament and beating teams like Duke and North Carolina. NC State was the hottest team in basketball at that point, and their hot streak continued against Texas Tech in the first round, beating them by 13 points. In the first round, NC State faced the Cinderella story Oakland Golden Grizzlies, who had just come off a win versus Kentucky. NC State did just enough to advance to the Sweet 16 by a score of 79-73. A difficult test was ahead of them, though, with Marquette, the two seeds awaiting them. North Carolina State controlled the whole game and advanced to the elite 8, where they faced the Duke Blue Devils. The Wolfpack took over in the second half and booked their trip to Phoenix for the Final 4.
The other three teams were expected to make a run in the tournament and with Uconn winning the national Championship last year; they were the clear favorites to take it home once again with an arguably better roster than last year. The Purdue Boilermakers have the best player in the country, 7’4” Zach Edey, who averages 25 points a game. Finally, Alabama has been under the radar all year, but they managed to make a run as one of the highest-scoring offenses in the nation.
Purdue was the favorite in their game versus North Carolina State, and it showed as they won 63-50, moving on to the National Championship. In the second game, Uconn was also the heavy favorite, but Alabama put up a fight in the first half, but they held on as Uconn advanced to the Championship game-winning 86-72
Uconn and Purdue matched up in the National Championship as both were number 1 seeds coming into the tournament. This game was a battle between two heavyweights, but Uconn was just a better team coming into the game. To many college basketball fans, Uconn is seen as one of the best-assembled teams of all time, with no weak spots in their lineup. Purdue hung in there in the first half, but as we saw in the Alabama game, Uconn ran away with it winning 75-60 and were declared National Champs.
