Final 4

Though the 2022 Final Four is made up of some of college basketball's biggest programs, not many Men's Bracket Challenge game brackets went a perfect 4 for ...

Top overall seed Gonzaga was first with 62.5 percent of brackets having the Bulldogs in the Final Four: In fact, one round after two No. 1 seeds bowed out in the Sweet 16 (Gonzaga and Arizona), higher seeds went 4-0 in the Elite Eight. Going into Sunday, No. 15 Saint Peter's — the first 15-seed to make the Elite Eight — and No. 10 Miami (Fla.) were in the Elite Eight as double-digit seeds. ESPN revealed that only 0.1 percent of its entries had all four Final Four teams correct. But the Jayhawks and Tar Heels ran away and into the national semifinals. Only 0.088 percent of MBCG brackets had No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Duke, No. 2 Villanova and No. 8 North Carolina all in the Final Four. Combined, the four have almost 60 Final Four appearances with 17 national championships — and all four have at least three titles.

North Carolina's Armando Bacot (right) collides with Saint Peter's KC Ndefo during the first half of their Elite Eight game Sunday.

Harp also served on Dean Smith’s staff when Davis and the Tar Heels made the Final Four in 1991. I played at Carolina. I played in the NBA. It’s not my time, it’s their time.” Now the 51-year-old Davis joins the likes of Ray Meyer, Steve Fisher and Denny Crum as one of nine coaches to reach the sport’s biggest stage in his rookie year. “I’ve been to the Final Four as a coach. Over the two games, he had 34 points and 37 rebounds. “I don’t think anything can be as crazy as the leadup to that game over in Cameron,” coach Hubert Davis said. It got rejected — by the front of the rim. The turning point there came when Brady Manek got ejected for throwing an inadvertent elbow. archrival Duke and its soon-to-be-retiring coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Three short weeks ago, the Tar Heels fractured a different sort of fairy tale — Coach K’s final home game — in a 94-81 beatdown of the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The entire basketball budget for this scrappy group from Jersey City, N.J., is $1.6 million — or around $400,000 less than what Davis makes in a year. “It was something that I just desperately wanted for them,” Davis said. Two nights earlier, the Peacocks (21-12) looked like Final Four material.

The Jayhawks and Blue Devils opened as two-possession favorites for Saturday's Final Four games.

(2) Villanova UNC, meanwhile, the only team not a No. 1 or 2 seed still in the field, unsurprisingly has the longest odds to win it all. In its Final Four matchup, it opened as a four-point favorite over No. 2 seed Villanova for the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.

There will be a quartet of traditional college basketball powers gathering next weekend in New Orleans for the men's Final Four. North Carolina and Kansas ...

The 72-year-old coach took the Hurricanes to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and 2016 but he didn't achieve the same type of breakthrough, as Miami suffered three consecutive losing seasons before reaching this NCAA Tournament as an at-large team that played its way off the bubble. But four minutes into the second half, veteran Christian Braun (12 points) helped spark the Jayhawks (32-6) with a thundering dunk and three-pointer to give Kansas a decisive lead that it wouldn't relinquish. One big issue for the Hurricanes that led to those Kansas fast breaks was poor ball handling that led to turnovers. The school announced Sunday that an MRI confirmed a torn Achilles tendon that will require surgery, leaving the Wildcats without a key contributor as they prepare to take on Kansas next Saturday at the Final Four in New Orleans. Kansas didn't do itself any favors by playing poorly in the first half – trailing 35-29, going 0-for-5 from beyond the arc and 3-for-9 from the free-throw line. The Tar Heels were up 38-19 at halftime and by as many as 27 points in the second half. Saint Peter's started slowly, the Tar Heels jumped on the Peacocks early and North Carolina doubled up its underdog opponent at the half. The 2022 Final Four starts April 1 in Minneapolis. Game times to be determined. The remaining two spots in the women's Final Four will be determined on Monday night. The Jayhawks will take on Villanova in the other Final Four matchup. USC outscored the Bluejays 23-9 in the second quarter to open up their comfortable margin. When the NCAA Tournament brackets came out on Selection Sunday, the notion of Duke and North Carolina playing one more time was never even mentioned.

After securing a No. 8 seed two weeks ago, North Carolina coach Hubert Davis and the resurgent Tar Heels are headed to the Final Four to face off with their ...

Their performance helps set up the third meeting of North Carolina and Duke this season. Saint Peter's shot 1-for-11 from 3-point range in the first half, and its futility was best summed up after coach Shaheen Holloway took a time out just 2:30 into the game and the Peacocks already trailing 7-0. North Carolina coach Hubert Davis clinched a Final Four bid in his first season on the sideline at UNC. And his climb onto the national stage as a head coach creates another bit of basketball providence. As for Sunday's game, midnight struck for Saint Peter's soon after tipoff, and the charmed run of the tiny school from Jersey City, New Jersey, ended with a wince-enduing thud. Saint Peter's slogged into halftime down 38-19, prompting the perpetually snarling Holloway to contort his facial expressions to inventive expressions of repulsion. UNC had everything working: Bacot grabbed 15 first-half rebounds, finishing with 22 and seemingly doing chin-ups on the rim as he parted Saint Peter's players like bowling pins. Saint Peter's historic run in the NCAA tournament came more through collective grit than offensive precision. Now the gift of bracket kismet gives UNC the chance for bragging rights on bar stools and tee boxes around the state for decades. While Krzyzewski's farewell will continue to vacuum up a considerable amount of oxygen, the job Davis has done deserves plenty of notice. We're in a place of togetherness because of time shared together." The 258th matchup will be the first one ever to take place in the NCAA tournament, a cosmic collision seemingly swiped from Tobacco Road fan fiction. They've competed in thunderclap matchups of No. 1 vs.

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.