Welcome to a Final Four nobody predicted but many saw coming. The specifics—three first-time programs, two mid-major conferences, zero teams from the top three seed lines—are stunning, but the general upheaval shouldn’t be.
Men’s college basketball was torqued inside-out like an umbrella in a windstorm this season, so this is an appropriate result. The existential question began in November and never really dissipated: is anyone in this sport really good?
We were fresh out of undefeated teams on Jan. 2, one of the earliest dates ever. The AP No. 1 ranking changed hands seven times, and nobody held that ranking for longer than four weeks. There was a pileup of pretty good, and no readily apparent greatness.
