Duke

Duke and North Carolina's first NCAA tournament meeting will be historic, but is not the first matchup of hated rivals on the Final Four stage.

By contrast, the Hoosiers had a much easier time in the national title game, defeating Michigan by 18 behind a combined 51 points from Scott May and Kent Benson. (Note that teams were unseeded until the 1979 tournament.) The Heels proceeded to lose to Indiana in the title game, while the Hoos won the D-I tournament's last ever men's third-place game. Georgetown defeated St. John's in the Big East tournament title game, and then again in the national semifinals. In the title game, Dwayne McClain scored 17 and Ed Pinckney added 16 against Patrick Ewing and a Georgetown defense that had held its 37 previous opponents to 39.8% shooting from the floor. The first came by six points in Ann Arbor, while the game in Bloomington went to overtime before Indiana prevailed. The Friars were 5-of-19 from beyond the arc, and the Orange advanced to a national title game where they lost to Indiana on Keith Smart's game-winner. The Hoyas won "the sweater game," and then repeated that feat two more times. The Friars were the surprise of the 1987 bracket. Instead, Joel Berry dished 10 assists and the Tar Heels won easily before falling to Villanova in the title game. Michigan State defeated the Badgers on consecutive Saturdays in February, in the Big Ten tournament semifinals and, finally, at the Final Four. Just the same, it was an amazing run for Wisconsin to make it that far. The Tar Heels will face Duke in a national semifinal. Stacey King, Harvey Grant, Mookie Blaylock and the Sooners won 21 of 22 from late January through the national semifinals.

The Tar Heels will meet the Blue Devils for the first time ever in the NCAA tournament.

UNC and Duke split the 2021–22 regular season series, with each team winning when on the road. The Tar Heels never trailed on their way to claiming the East Region’s spot in the Final Four. The Tar Heels dominated from the opening tip, leading the Peacocks by as much as 27 points in the win.

The 2022 NCAA Tournament has been a wild ride filled with everything we love about the annual college basketball frenzy. There have been upsets, underdogs, ...

At the time, the Runnin' Rebels were the defending national champions and making their third Final Four appearance in a five-year span. UCLA has obviously fallen off since Wooden's tenure, but this marked the Bruins' third straight Final Four appearance under Ben Howland. Of course, each of these teams are indeed blue, which can't hurt its case in the blue-blood debate. How wild is it that Boeheim, who just finished his 46th season as Syracuse's coach, can say that he coached against Wooden? The 1975 Final Four was a bridge between eras of the game, and the 2022 Final Four could be remembered in the same way as Duke tries to send Mike Krzyzewski out with a national title. Former UNC assistant Roy Williams was in his fifth season with the Jayhawks and coaching against his mentor, Dean Smith, at UNC. Smith got the best of his pupil and went on to win his second and final national championship. The Cardinals were in just their fourth season under Denny Crum, who was a former player and assistant under Wooden. Jim Boeheim was still an assistant for the Orange. Kentucky was in its third season under Joe B. Hall. Given that Louisville and Syracuse were just beginning their ascensions to true national prominence, this one comes in a close second behind the 2022 Final Four in terms of blue-blood prowess. In the end, though, the Final Four of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova is a group of the sport's royalty. Additionally, between 2008 and 2018, each of these four teams won at least one national championship, and collectively the group combined for seven titles over that span. Here's a ranking of the Final Fours in the running for most blue-blood heavy of all-time as we get ready to see four of the sport's biggest brands battle it out for the national title. Is this officially the most blue-blood heavy Final Four of all-time? In fact, it may be the most blue-blood heavy Final Four ever. In fact, no one outside this group won the national title between 2015 and 2018. This season's collection of programs registers strongly even without UCLA or Kentucky (the Wildcats have eight), who are first and second on the NCAA's all-time national titles list.

Duke, Villanova and Kansas — three of the bluest of the bluebloods, each with historic pedigrees and national followings — will descend on the Big Easy next ...

The NCAA tournament has an endearing history of keeping Darwinism at bay for two weeks. Three is another matter. Survival (and advancement) of the fittest ...

In this respect, Krzyzewski could find himself on the other end of the matchup break he received while winning his last title in 2015. The Duke–Carolina matchup is such a ridiculous pileup of story lines that Kansas–Villanova is by far the undercard game. Their days of ugly losses came to an end in mid-February, and they’ve won 10 of 11 since then. The best path belonged to Kansas earlier in the tournament, and it still does now. (Davis and Williams both were in tears at the end of the rout of Saint Peter’s Sunday night.) This is a major blow not just in terms of quality but quantity—Villanova simply doesn’t have enough players. And Kansas has played lights-out in this tournament. They also are meeting with Krzyzewski’s career on the line—Carolina can send him into retirement short of a sixth national title, or he can get a shot at one more. Nobody knew it at the time, but that game served as the springboard for them both to go this far. Survival (and advancement) of the fittest remains the immutable law of the latter stages. Kansas, North Carolina and Duke are first, third and fourth in all-time victories. The Peacocks raised the ceiling on what a No. 15 seed can do.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — America's favorite underdog, Saint Peter's, shouldn't feel all that bad. North Carolina has crushed lots of dreams over the decades.