Final Four: Last year’s bluebloods are this year’s no-names

HOUSTON (AP)— One short year ago, college basketball was getting ready for thegame of a lifetime: North Carolina vs. Duke at the Final Four.

And thisyear? Well, to put it kindly, who the heck are these guys?

The NCAATournament, the annual event that has told and sold and mademarketing gold out of the story of underdogs and busted bracketshas, for 2023, produced an extreme rendition of what happenswhenall that cherishedunpredictabilityplays itself out to the end.

In one FinalFour meeting Saturday, it will be San Diego State against FloridaAtlantic. In the other, it will be Miami vs. UConn.

“I expect theprognosticators to pick us fifth at the Final Four,” FloridaAtlantic coach Dusty May said in a nod to the reality that nobodyreally expected the Owls, or any of these teams, to be here.

Of the fourprograms descending on Houston this week, only one has ever sniffeda Final Four before. It’s the first time in 53 years that hashappened.

With its fournational titles and some famous names from the past, including JimCalhoun, Kemba Walkerand Rip Hamilton, the name “Connecticut”certainly should ring a bell, even if it might not tread all theway into true blueblood territory.

Miami?That was a program that was literally shut down for 14years in the 1970s and 1980s due to lack of interest. The schoolwas too busy building a football program that would become(in)famous for winning with a certain panache.

May’s FloridaAtlanticprogram? It’s a relative new kid on the block, amember of Division I since 1993 that is based in the retirementcommunity of Boca Raton, a locale better known for its 4:30 dinnerspecials than its 7 p.m. tipoffs.

San DiegoState?In their defense, maybe thisshouldn’t be the Aztecs’ first Final Four. In 2020, they were 30-2and generally slotted in as a No. 1 seed, albeit still an underdogto a stacked Kansas team that was the odds-on favorite. Then COVIDhit and wiped that season off the boards.

“There are alot of really good teams in college basketball, and the differencebetween winning and losing is paper thin,” San Diego State coachBrian Dutcher said.

Will anyone,outside of the truest of diehards, bother to watch?

As ofThursday, a pair of seats in the nosebleed section for Saturday’sdoubleheader — the most-anticipated day on the college hoopscalendar — were going for around $100 each on the secondary market.A year ago, shortly after the Duke-Carolina matchup was set, theaverage price for those same seats nearly doubled to $800 aticket.

There hasbeen a lot of debate and even some handwringing about how one ofAmerica’s greatest sporting events produced a 4 seed, two 5s and a9 — for a seed total of 23, which is the second-highest in history— that between them boast not a single McDonald’s All-American norone consensus top-30 recruit.

The transferportal, which allows players to come and go from school to schoolwithout having to sit out a year, might be the best explanation.Miami coach Jim Larranaga called it basketball’s form of “speeddating,” a get-rich-quick scheme that, with the right timing,chemistry and luck, can make a roster very good (or very bad) veryquickly.

Some otherpossibilities: an NCAA selection committee that some say isdivorced from reality; the ever-shifting landscape caused byname-image-likeness (NIL) deals that give players more leverage(and money); and, for sure, an abundance of flawed teams —including Alabama, Houston and Kansas — that were overvalued andplaced at the top of the heap this year.

But beforejumping to grand conclusions about matchups like these becoming the“new normal” at the Final Four, former Duke star and current TVanalyst Jay Bilas reminds us that we are a scant 365 days removedfrom a completely different sort of get-together.

“I love theone about the narratives that you don’t need those McDonalds guysto win,” Bilas said. “OK, so don’t recruit the best players, andsee how that goes for you. I just don’t understand how all thisgets this way.”

A year ago,the tournament felt perfect. The country got its dose of Cinderella— namely, when 15 seed Saint Peter’s made a first-of-its-kind runinto the Elite Eight. Then, a sense of perfectly timed normalcytook over.

Duke coachMike Krzyzewski got to close out his career at the Final Four,andtheendcame against none other than archrival North Carolina.Joining those power programs in New Orleans last year were Kansasand Villanova, two more of the country’s great programs with sevennational titles between them. The total seed value of those fourteams: 13, with most of that accounted for by the Tar Heels, whogot in as an 8 after knocking out Saint Pete’s.

So, will 2023be remembered as the year when chaos took over for good, or just aminor blip in the proceedings while all those Jayhawks and BlueDevils reload?

“Thetournament is about a lot of different things to a lot of differentpeople,” Bilas said. “Some people love it for the brackets, somepeople love it for the basketball. But no matter who’s in the FinalFour, the bandwagon is always wide open, and you can jump on itwhenever you want.”