NCAA March Madness 2026: 4 best teams will define the champion
Arizona, Michigan, Illinois and UConn raise the curtain on the Men’s March Madness Final Four with the mission of winning the college crown.
INDIANAPOLIS – The UConn Huskies They seek to win their third US men’s college basketball championship this weekend; the Michigan Wolverines, the second in its history; the Arizona Wildcatsthe first since 1997; and the Illinois Fighting Illinidebut as monarchs.
Yes, this Saturday the Men’s Final Four in Indianapoliswhere the season will end college basketball with a new national championwhich can be very repetitive if Connecticut is crowned.
“We don’t come for a watch, we come for a ring,” said the Connecticut coach Dan Hurley in reference to the fact that all the teams participating in the Final Four 2026 They received a gift watch and the champion will be the only one to win a gold and diamond ring.
Hurley and Connecticut They still haven’t woken up from having eliminated the favorites, the Duke Blue Devils, with less than a second in the round of the “Elite 8” the previous weekend, after they were down by 19 points on the scoreboard.
On Saturday, in the first semifinal it will be similar. Connecticut is seen as disadvantaged University of Illinoiswhich has the most efficient offense in the country and second in second-chance points. And ironically, they have reached the Final Four thanks to his defense.
“They are a very complete team that does everything well,” Hurley acknowledged. “It is a team that hurts you in different ways against which you cannot make mistakes.”
The second semifinal Saturday will have the universities of Michigan and of Arizonawho face each other for the first time in the NCAA Tournamentbut that in the regular season the seconds have won the last four times they have faced each other.
Michigan arrives as the number one school in the country with what for many is the most complete player, the Puerto Rican Yaxel Lendeborg.
Between Arizona and Michigan They won a combined 71 games, which represents the fourth most in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona seeks its first championship since 1997led by three first-year players: Koa Peat, Brayden Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov. And the best offensive performance in the paint perhaps in history, scoring 100 points below the rim in his two most recent games.
Arizona’s starting lineup has outscored its opponents by a combined 304 points this season, nearly 40 points more than the next-place team. NCAA, Michigan.
“The one who makes the fewest mistakes and is the most intelligent in playing will come out of this match,” considered the center of Michigan, the Spanish Aday Mara. “They have very young star players. I think we have experience. Both teams have strengths and weaknesses. But we are here because we have earned it.
“So we will have to play our best basketball of the year or everything we have done will be for nothing.”
In this Final Four is the future of basketballincluding among the four teams a dozen players who will come out in the first round of the NBA draftled by the guard Illinois Keaton Wagler and the forward of Michigan Lendeborg.
