Michigan-Arizona for all the marbles? What Final Four history says about ‘de facto title games’
Not every Final Four game is created equal.
Because the NCAA Tournament famously does not reseed teams as they advance from one weekend to another, sometimes the two best teams left in the field play each other on the Saturday of the postseason’s final weekend instead of Monday night.
No offense to UConn and Illinois, but this Final Four appears to be one of those times. Emphasis on appears.
Arizona-Michigan, the nightcap of Saturday’s semifinal doubleheader, matches the two remaining No. 1 seeds left in the tournament. The Wildcats and Wolverines spent most of the regular season running roughshod over opponents and have continued to roll through the tournament. Arizona’s average margin of victory through the first four rounds of March Madness is 20.5. Michigan’s is 22.5.
If KenPom efficiency ratings are your thing: Michigan is No. 1. Arizona is No. 2. Of course, Duke is No. 3, and we all know how that worked out for the Blue Devils against UConn.
The NCAA Tournament has a history of de facto national championship games. Some have proven to be just that. In other cases, a team on the other side of the bracket had other things in mind.
Below is a look at some of the Final Four’s most famous semifinals that felt like finals, and whether they actually turned out to match their billing.
Duke vs. Kentucky, 1966
The NCAA Tournament was a very different event at this time, with only 22 teams and regions that were truly regional.
Duke basketball wasn’t what it would become under Mike Krzyzewski, but the Blue Devils were a force in the ACC. Coach Vic Bubas’ team was in the Final Four for the third time in four years after being ranked No. 1 in the AP poll for much of the season. Meanwhile, Kentucky was very much Kentucky, led by coach Adolph Rupp, who already had a record-at-the-time four NCAA titles. These Wildcats entered the tournament ranked No. 1.
Kentucky won the No. 1 vs. No. 2 semifinal matchup that led the New York Times’ coverage of the Final Four and entered the championship game as a solid favorite against Texas Western.
How’d that work out? The Miners from El Paso had lost only one game and beat Utah in their less heralded semifinal, but they faced skepticism nationally over the quality of their competition and the uncommon makeup of the team: The Miners started five Black players, led by undersized guard Bobby Joe Hill and Dave Lattin. Coach Don Haskins’ Miners pulled the upset over an all-White Kentucky team and made history, becoming the first team with an all-Black starting lineup to win the NCAA Tournament.
NC State vs. UCLA, 1974
UCLA had won seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments and nine of 10 heading into the Final Four in Bill Walton’s last season as a Bruin. Coach John Wooden’s team had its 88-game winning streak snapped in January by Notre Dame and then lost two Pac-8 games in February but still rolled into the tournament as the conference champ and the No. 2 team in the country.
NC State was No. 1, with spectacular high-scorer David Thompson. The year before, the Wolfpack had finished 27-0 but were banned from the tournament because of NCAA rule violations.
The Bruins had beaten the Wolfpack early in the 1973-74 season in a made-for-TV matchup in St. Louis, but NC State did not lose again.
The Final Four rematch — in Greensboro, N.C. — more than lived up to the hype, going to double overtime. Walton had 29 points and 18 rebounds, playing every minute. Thompson scored 28 points, and NC State rallied from seven down in the second OT to snap UCLA’s unprecedented dynastic run with an 80-77 win.
How’d that work out? A formidable Marquette team, which beat Kansas by 13 in the other semifinal, awaited NC State in the final. The Wolfpack suffered no letdown, winning by 10 to secure the program’s first NCAA title.
Houston-Louisville, 1983
Phi Slama Jama vs. the Doctors of Dunk. Cougars-Cardinals was not just a matchup of No. 1 seeds but a high-flying air show between two teams that liked to get up and go. Guy Lewis’ Cougars featured Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. Denny Crum’s Cardinals were led by Milt Wagner, Lancaster Jordan and the McCray brothers, Scooter and Rodney.
The game delivered the highlight reel everybody hoped for. Houston had 14 dunks, including six straight baskets via slam at one point.
“Not in a real game,” Rodney McCray was quoted as saying when asked if he had ever seen anything like Phi Slama Jama’s performance.
The Cougars pulled away for a 94-81 victory (remember this was pre-shot clock and 3-point line). Monday night’s title game was expected to be a mismatch against NC State, a No. 6 seed that squeaked by fourth-seeded Georgia in the semifinals and reached the championship game with three victories decided by two points or less.
How’d that work out? Jim Valvano’s Wolfpack needed to win the ACC tournament to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. NC State completed maybe the most magical underdog run in college basketball history by upsetting the Cougars 54-52 when Lorenzo Charles dunked Dereck Whittenburg’s long jumper that came up short at the buzzer. Phi Slama Jama makes the short list of greatest teams never to win the NCAA Tournament.
Indiana vs. UNLV, 1987
This was Jerry Tarkanian’s first trip to the Final Four with the Runnin’ Rebels. Powerful forward Armen Gilliam was the star for UNLV, which entered the game 37-1. Tarkanian had already built an outlaw’s reputation, a towel-biting thorn in the side of the NCAA. Meanwhile, Indiana coach Bob Knight was the General, an unrelenting disciplinarian who had already won two national titles.
The coaches’ personalities matched the styles of their teams. The regimented Hoosiers against the free-wheeling Rebs. Both were No. 1 seeds, and a record 65,959 packed the Superdome in New Orleans to see it. Steve Alford and the Hoosiers beat the Runnin’ Rebels at their own game, winning 97-93.
“We didn’t think that it would be the kind of game that we could play with all kind of patience and a lot of passing and a lot of dribbling, because we thought that their defensive pressure was too great,” Knight told reporters.
How’d that work out? Knight won his third and final championship, but it was far from easy. Syracuse, which had knocked off Rick Pitino’s upstart Providence team in the semifinals, led by one in the closing seconds of the title game when Keith Smart made the go-ahead baseline jumper with four seconds left to secure the victory. Footnote: CBS debuted its “One Shining Moment” montage after the game.
UMass vs. Kentucky, 1996
Rick Pitino and John Calipari had already established a rivalry in 1992 when Pitino’s Wildcats beat Calipari’s Minutemen in the Sweet 16. Four years later, both programs were peaking. National player of the year Marcus Camby and UMass were 35-1. Kentucky’s roster had nine future NBA players, including Tony Delk and Antoine Walker. The Minutemen and Wildcats held the top two spots in the AP poll for the final 12 weeks of the season heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Camby dominated in the semifinal with 25 points and six blocked shots, but Kentucky kept UMass at bay and won 81-74. It turned out to be Calipari’s last game with UMass, as he jumped to the NBA to become coach of the New Jersey Nets.
How’d that work out? Again, coach Jim Boeheim and Syracuse were the winners of the undercard for the de facto championship game. The Orange were a No. 4 seed and beat Mississippi State, a No. 5 seed, in their semifinal behind John Wallace. Kentucky was a double-digit favorite in the title game, and while Boeheim’s 2-3 zone managed to keep the game competitive, the title game was indeed an anticlimactic end as Pitino led Kentucky to its first NCAA championship in 18 years.
Duke vs. UConn, 2004
The Huskies were a No. 2 seed, but Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon and company hit their stride in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Final Four by winning four games by an average of 17 points.
Duke was a top seed, with a lineup that included JJ Redick and freshman star Luol Deng for three-time national champion coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Huskies and Blue Devils had also met five years earlier in the NCAA championship game, with coach Jim Calhoun upsetting one of Coach K’s best teams to win the 1999 tournament.
The Huskies did it again to Duke, rallying late with 12 straight points to beat the Blue Devils 79-78.
How’d that work out? UConn beat Georgia Tech, which had knocked off Oklahoma State in the Final Four, in a championship game that left little doubt the championship had been decided on Saturday.
Honorable mentions
St. John’s vs. Georgetown, 1985: The rubber match between Big East rivals certainly seemed like the best shot to keep Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas from repeating as champions. Then another Big East rival, Villanova, threw a perfect game in the final.
Oklahoma vs. Arizona, 1988: Two star-studded No. 1 seeds, with Sean Elliott leading the Wildcats against Stacey King, Mookie Blaylock and the Sooners. Duke’s presence on the other side of the bracket tempered some of the de facto championship talk. And then Danny Manning and the Miracles won it all for sixth-seeded Kansas.
Duke vs. UNLV, 1991: This one doesn’t quite match the definition, because unbeaten UNLV was two wins away from staking claim to the title of greatest college basketball team of all time. The whole Final Four was supposed to be a coronation, no matter which of North Carolina or Kansas won the other semifinal. But Duke, which lost the title game to UNLV the year before by 30, upset Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and the Runnin’ Rebels. In retrospect, it was the de facto title game.
Maryland vs. Kansas, 2002: Loaded No. 1 seeds, the Terps and Jayhawks played a thrilling semifinal that Maryland won 97-88. The Terps then beat Indiana in a ho-hum title game.
Villanova vs. Kansas, 2018: Third-seeded Michigan and 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago were on the other side of the bracket from the two No. 1 seeds, though Villanova was playing so well it wasn’t all that shocking when the Wildcats ran KU out of the building on the way to a title.
