Barack Obama. Digger Phelps. Snoop Dogg. Dick Vitale. Joe Lunardi. Those are just some of the millions of college basketball fans that picked zero final four teams correctly. In fact, in ESPN.com's "Tournament Challenge", only 2 of over 5.9 million brackets sent in included all four Final Four teams in their bracket. Predictable? Not really. Unique? Yes.
The Favorites
As the highest seed remaining in the tournament, three seed Connecticut is hoping to not fall as a favorite like one seed Duke, one seed Ohio State, and two seed Florida have done in the tournament. This year, it seems like "favorite" is a dirty war as no number one or two seed made it to the Final Four. Much pressure is put on this team, but Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun has done this job long enough to know the best way to handle it. If UConn wins their next two games, Calhoun would be the oldest coach to win a Men's College Basketball Championship.
The Hot Team
Other than UConn, Kentucky was the only team that would not be a surprise to be picked to go to the Final Four. The Wildcats won their last 5 regular season games, including 2 seed Florida twice. Also, they are led by Coach John Calipari who has reached the Final Four 4 twice before, including 2008 when he was with Memphis. With so many arguments for Kentucky, one important factor against them is the lack of experience. 5 of the 10 players on the Wildcats are freshman including 17.3 point per game Brandon Knight who has stepped up to be the leader of this team.
Cinderella
VCWho? That's what many fans asked on selection Sunday. Now VCU is a commonly named college. Some try to be fancy and just call them "Virginia Commonwealth". Regardless of the name, the Rams reached the Final Four for the first time in history this year and they're still not done. They won five games so far in the tournament and 5 times this tournament they were not picked favorites. They are still not the favorite after all they have proved in front of a national audience but for them, there's not much to complain about.
Sleeping Beauty
After Butler's astounding run last year, the Bulldogs' run this year has not even come up as a surprise to many people this year. Despite that, many fans didn't even believe Butler would even win their first game. Now they are in the Final Four for the second straight year with something to prove after their heartbreaking loss last year over heavily favored Duke. If they beat VCU tonight, they will have a shot of redemption against the winner of UConn and Kentucky. The truth of it is that this is not a given. VCU has beaten "better" teams in this tournament and is going to give Butler a fight in tonight's game. On the other hand, there's no question that Butler is going to do the same.
Butler-VCU
One of the most unpredicted final four matchups in the history of the tournament, one Cinderella team will fall tonight in Houston as the Butler Bulldogs will play the Virginia Commonwealth Rams in what is sure to be a hard-fought battle. Another interesting fact is that both coaches are combined younger than 70 years old.
UConn-Kentucky
The Connecticut Huskies and Kentucky Wildcats are now the most prestigious teams remaining in the tournament and only one will remain after tonight, or tomorrow morning if the game goes on too late. The winner of this game will play the winner of Butler and VCU and will most likely be the favorites in the National Championship.
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