Men's Final Four: In battle of No. 1 seeds, who comes out on top?
The NCAA Tournament's Final Four begins Saturday with a heavyweight clash between Houston and Duke and an all-SEC matchup featuring Florida and Auburn.
The ball is tipped — but three games remain until men’s college basketball receives its one shining moment.
The NCAA Tournament's Final Four begins Saturday with semifinal matchups between Houston and Duke and an all-SEC matchup featuring Florida and Auburn, with the winners facing off Monday in the national championship from San Antonio’s Alamodome. All four schools remaining started the tournament as top seeds in their region, only the second time that has happened in tournament history, and the first since 2008.
NBC News breaks down the factors that could decide the next national championship.
Greif: For the past decade there hasn’t exactly been a dearth of lower-seed Cinderellas to make the Final Four, and college basketball’s best attribute is its parity. Now, I’ll step down from my soapbox to say this: That hasn’t always led to compelling games once in the Final Four, however. And this season, with Florida, Duke, Auburn and Houston all looking a cut above during various stretches, the best basketball outcome fans could have received was watching these strength-on-strength semifinals.
Who doesn’t want to watch Duke’s historically efficient offense try to solve Houston’s top-ranked defense, or Auburn’s veteran-laden roster (led by player of the year candidate Johni Broome) attempt to derail Florida’s special season?
Rating: 5