Kentucky’s Darius Miller (1) works against Baylor’s Pierre Jackson during the second half of an NCAA tournament South Regional finals college basketball game Sunday. (Associated Press)
This year, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has not failed to live up to its thrilling reputation.
The Final Four is set with Kentucky coming out of the South, Louisville out of the West, Ohio State out of the East, and Kansas and UNC battling for the Midwest title.
All five of these contenders are known as some of the premier basketball programs in the nation, yet only Kentucky reached this stage last year in a Final Four that featured Virginia Commonwealth University, Butler, University of Kentucky, and University of Connecticut.
Despite no higher than a No. 4 seed making it to the Final Four, some unlikely teams made an impressive run this season.
In the Midwest, NC State and Ohio extended their tournament runs to the sweet sixteen.
NC State, an eleven seed, finished their season out with a loss to UNC in a close ACC semifinal.
The Pack caught fire in the tournament, though, but eventually lost to Kansas.
University of Ohio, a thirteen seed, won the Mid-American Conference tournament to get a bid to the big dance.
The Bobcats then beat Michigan, then USF before eventually losing to UNC.
UConn, tournament winners last year, could not have the same kind of success without Kemba Walker.
The Huskies had neither Walker nor the momentum they had last season when they won the Big East tournament, ultimately leading to a 13 point loss to Iowa State in the first round.
VCU stunned everyone last year with a run that ended with a final four loss to Butler, but couldn’t put together the same kind of streak together this year.
Like Uconn, VCU also lost a key player this season in Jamie Skeen.
After winning the Colonial Athletic Association to get a tournament bid, VCU made it to the second round in the South, but lost by two to Indiana, sending the Hoosiers to their first sweet sixteen in a decade.
Indiana would lose this game, though, to a dominant Kentucky team.
As the tournament narrows down to four teams, the champion will be decided in New Orleans. Kentucky looks to be the favorite to win as of now, but as with March Madness, anything can happen.
