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After two thrilling weeks of high-stakes games, a group of 68 teams that entered mid-March with dreams of a national championship has been whittled down to four.
And with that, college basketball’s preeminent event is about to get underway.
The Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Tournament will tip off on Saturday, April 4, with Arizona, Michigan, UConn and Illinois heading to Indianapolis hoping to cut down the nets inside Lucas Oil Stadium after securing a national title.
Making the Final Four is an accomplishment in and of itself in college basketball, a step in a journey that doubles as a destination after teams successfully navigate all of the challenges that the first four full rounds of March Madness have to offer.
This year, the Final Four is giving fans across the country a pair of teams, Michigan and Arizona, that were two of the three best teams for much of the season and two others, Illinois and UConn, that spent most of the season ranked in the top 15. There’s some history at stake, too. Will Arizona win and break a nearly 30-year title-less spell for schools west of Texas? Can Michigan or Illinois become the Big Ten’s first national champion since 2000? Or is UConn poised for its third title in the past four years, cementing its status as a modern-day dynasty?
Those questions will be answered soon enough, but for now, how do those four squads stack up against one another?
Final Four power rankings
1. Arizona
Though there’s not a whole lot that separates them from fellow juggernaut Michigan, the Wildcats have everything you could realistically hope for out of a title team. They have the consummate floor general in guard Jaden Bradley. They have a pair of five-star freshmen in Brayden Burries and Koa Peat who have more than lived up to their immense hype before likely heading off to the NBA in a few weeks. They’ve got size and toughness down low, with Ivan Kharchenkov, Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka. While he still hasn’t won a title, their coach, Tommy Lloyd, has exorcised some past March demons by leading the program to its first Final Four since 2001.
What might be most encouraging for Arizona is that it’s much less prone than anyone else in the country to an off shooting night. The Wildcats have the third-lowest 3-point rate among all Division I teams, preferring instead to get high-percentage shots closer to the basket. Even when they do fire from beyond the arc, they’re still pretty good, shooting 36% as a team.
While it’s presumptuous to declare Arizona’s game against Michigan as the pseudo national championship, whoever wins the matchup will be a decided favorite in the title game.
2. Michigan
The Wolverines were a pleasant surprise in coach Dusty May’s first season, more than tripling their win total from the previous season and advancing to the Sweet 16. In his second season at the helm, they’re not an upstart; they’re a freight train.
After a 31-3 regular season, they’ve won their four NCAA Tournament games by a combined 90 points, including a 33-point beatdown of Tennessee in the Elite Eight. For all the size Arizona has, Michigan counters with perhaps the best frontcourt in the country, a physical and highly skilled trio featuring Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. May’s team is No. 1 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency and is just one of two squads ranked in the top five in Division I in both offensive and defensive efficiency, according to KenPom (Arizona, fittingly, is the other). The Wolverines’ guards are a bit more of a question mark, but North Carolina transfer Elliot Cadeau has been on a heater in the tournament, with 33 assists to just seven turnovers.
3. UConn
While the Huskies are only 24 months removed from the second of their back-to-back national championships, this is a largely remade team, with program stalwart Alex Karaban the only player left who received significant minutes from either of those squads. Though they don’t have that championship pedigree, this is a squad that has shown its mettle, hanging on to beat Michigan State in the Sweet 16 before pulling off an epic comeback victory against Duke in the Elite Eight, a game they trailed by 17 in the second half.
No player has been more integral to this run than Tarris Reed Jr., who has been perhaps the best player in the tournament. Reed enters the Final Four averaging 21.8 points and 13.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 60% from the field. UConn isn’t nearly as offensively potent as it has been in recent years, but it was still able to beat Duke despite missing 18 of its 23 3s. Cliche as it may sound, this is a team, program and coach that simply finds ways to win.
Dan Hurley’s squad has this working for it, too: the Huskies have now won 18 consecutive games in the Sweet 16 or later in the tournament.
4. Illinois
The Fighting Illini’s road to Indianapolis wasn’t as arduous as the paths traveled by the other three national semifinalists, but coach Brad Underwood’s team didn’t look any less impressive. It won its four tournament games by an average of 19.5 points and each game was decided by at least 10 points, including a win against No. 2 seed Houston in a game played in the Cougars’ hometown.
Illinois is No. 1 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, more than three points per 100 possessions better than any of the teams remaining in the field. Even when shots aren’t falling at a dizzying pace, it has shown an ability to gut out games behind an improving defense that has held each of its past three opponents under 60 points.
UConn will be a sizable challenge, but don’t let the Huskies’ 74-61 victory against the Illini back in November at Madison Square Garden sway you too much, especially since the teams’ current top scorers, Reed for UConn and Keaton Wagler for Illinois, combined to play just 29 minutes.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Final Four power rankings: Who's the best team left in March Madness?
