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The biggest winner of the NCAA men’s tournament is the team left standing: Connecticut made it two national championships in a row by beating Purdue 75-60.
Despite the loss, this was a memorable season for the Boilermakers. One year ago, Purdue was bounced out of the first round in an historic upset by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson.
But this wasn’t a tournament to remember for the SEC, the Mountain West and teams such as Kentucky, Auburn and Houston.
With the Huskies’ sixth national championship in the books, here are the biggest winners and losers from this year’s edition of March Madness:
ACC
Just when it seemed like the ACC was down, it reminded everyone about its position among the top men’s college basketball conferences.
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Aside from Virginia, the other four ACC teams to make the field all advanced to the Sweet 16. Three of them – Clemson, Duke and North Carolina State – made the Elite Eight, and the Wolfpack capped it off with a trip to the Final Four with their breakout star DJ Burns providing some of the great moments of the tournament.
The ACC has been taking punches left and right as the college sports world continues to change and, but it was a successful March for a conference that is among the leaders in college basketball national championships.
Connecticut
This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill national champion, if such a thing exists. The Huskies are an unforgettable powerhouse who deserve to be placed alongside the best teams in NCAA history. Just like a year ago, every win in this tournament came by a double-digit margin. The closest win during this span was a 13-point victory against Miami in last year’s Final Four. Loaded in the frontcourt but absolutely dominant in the backcourt, the Huskies were the total package. Tristen Newton (20 points) was the top scorer against the Boilermakers but was just one of five or six players on this roster capable of being the best player on the floor.
Zach Edey
Not since Princeton’s Bill Bradley in 1965 has a player so thoroughly dominated competition without winning the national championship. Edey scored 37 points on Monday night and scored 177 points across six games, tied with Bradley for the second most by a player in a single tournament. And this wasn’t even his best performance of the past few weeks; he scored 40 points in Purdue’s win against Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The two-time national player of the year went out with a flourish.
The Big East
Maybe the league should’ve earned more than three bids, huh? UConn won the whole thing. Creighton and Marquette reached the Sweet 16. Overall, these three teams went a combined 10-2 to give the Big East the best winning percentage of any conference with multiple teams in the field.
Mid-major coaches
Taking some liberty in calling Washington State a mid-major with its impending move to the West Coast Conference, there were seven coaches in the tournament that ended up getting promoted to jobs with Power Six conferences. Three came after first-round wins – Mark Byington from James Madison to Vanderbilt, Danny Sprinkle from Utah State to Washington and Kyle Smith from Washington State to Stanford.
Four others were first-round losers − Dusty May from Florida Atlantic to Michigan, Darian DeVries from Drake to West Virginia, Pat Kelsey from College of Charleston to Louisville and Steve Lutz from Western Kentucky to Oklahoma State. Those seven represent more than half the openings among the Power Six this offseason.
The SEC
The SEC tied the Big 12 for the most teams in the tournament with nine but had just two, Alabama and Tennessee, make any noise beyond the opening weekend. The Crimson Tide’s surprising Final Four appearance helped the league go 8-8 in tournament play, but the SEC had four teams go out in the opening round, including No. 3 Kentucky.
Kentucky
And speaking of the Wildcats: The early exit at the hands of No. 14 Oakland was followed under three weeks later by coach John Calipari’s departure for the same position at Arkansas. Is that really a bad thing? Despite recruiting as well or better than any program in the country, Kentucky hasn’t gotten out of the opening weekend since 2019 and hasn’t made the Final Four since 2015.
