The 2023 NCAA Tournament has reached the game’s biggest stage, the Final Four. The schedule is set, with No. 5 seed San Diego State, the South Regional champions, playing No. 9 seed FAU, the East Regional champions, in the first game at 6:09 p.m. ET and then the No. 4 seed UConn, the West Regional champions, playing No. 5 seed Miami, the Midwest Regional champions, at approximately 8:49 p.m. ET.
Before the first game even tips off we already have a historic Final Four. This is the first Final Four since 1970 with three of the four teams making their debut in the NCAA Tournament national semifinals. FAU, San Diego State and Miami are all “first-timers” to the Final Four club, though Miami head coach Jim Larranaga previously reached this stage with George Mason in 2006 and San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher got to the Final Four multiple times as an assistant for Steve Fisher at Michigan.
It’s also the first time since seeding began in 1979 that no teams from the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed lines have made it to the Final Four and just the fourth Final Four with no No. 1 seeds (1980, 2006, 2011).
But those are just the big-picture angles to Saturday’s semifinals. Let’s get into the storylines to know heading into the Final Four action from Houston.
An overwhelming favorite among the four
UConn is a No. 4 seed according to the NCAA Tournament selection committee, therefore not ranked that much higher than 5-seed Miami, its national semifinal opponent, or No. 5 seed San Diego State. But the oddsmakers have the Huskies far ahead of the field in terms of the odds to win the national championship, listing UConn as a favorite not just against Miami but against the field. As of Friday night, the Huskies were listed at -130 — better than even odds — to win the national championship, while the next-best options on the odds board were San Diego State at 4-1 or Miami at 5-1, according to Caesars…
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