Some numbers from a blue-blood Final Four

Mike Hugueninby:Mike Huguenin•03/28/22•

MikeHuguenin

In a season – and NCAA tournament – marked by a lot of chaos, the final four teams standing are three of the bluest blue bloods plus a program looking for its third title in six seasons. Not exactly a fitting end to a wild season, but an end that should be quite entertaining anyway.

Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova have a combined 61 Final Four appearances and 17 national titles. Three of the four coaches at the Final Four have won a national title; the one who hasn’t, UNC’s Hubert Davis, was an assistant on the 2017 Tar Heels team that wore the crown.

And we haven’t even mentioned Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski yet. Krzyzewski is in his record 13th Final Four and is going for his sixth title in his final season as coach. Villanova coach Jay Wright is going for his third title, and Kansas’ Bill Self his second.

Krzyzewski already is alone in second in titles, behind only UCLA’s John Wooden (10). Wooden won his final title in his last season as coach, in 1975. Wright is trying to become the seventh coach with three, joining Wooden, Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp (four), Jim Calhoun (three), Bob Knight (three) and Roy Williams (three). And Self is trying to become the 16th coach with at least two.

A Duke title would move the school into a tie for third with UNC with six, behind UCLA (12) and Kentucky (eight). And titles by Kansas or Villanova would move those schools into a tie for sixth with UConn (four) for most championships, behind UCLA, UK, UNC, Duke and Indiana.

Kansas last won in all in 2008, rallying past Memphis in overtime. Duke last won it in 2015, when it edged Wisconsin. UNC is going for its first title since 2017, when the Heels beat Gonzaga. And Villanova last won it all in 2018, when it rolled past Michigan.

This is the 25th time in Final Four history that at least two teams from the same conference have advanced to the national semifinals; it’s the seventh time two ACC teams have advanced. The Big Ten leads with eight, while the SEC has four and the Big East and Big Eight/Big 12 have three each. In 10 of those instances, the team that won the title was from a league that had multiple teams.

Remember, though, that the field was limited to one team per league until 1975. That means that all 25 instances of multiple teams advancing to the Final Four have occurred in the past 48 seasons (and there was no tournament in 2020 because of COVID).