Duke has been able to turn things around since the tournament. (0:51)
The stage is now set for the ultimate meeting of rivals after North Carolina's 20-point win over Saint Peter's in the East Regional final. The Tar Heels will play Duke.
Rivals at the Final Four have been known to meet. During the national title game, there were some collisions.
Conference rivals faced off in the Final Four.
When the Tar Heels and the Orange met in the Final Four, they were not old rivals. Syracuse had just joined the conference. Expectations were high when the group took on the top-seeded UNC. It didn't seem far-fetched to think that this team could do the same thing as Virginia. The Tar Heels won easily before falling to the title game, which was also won by Berry with 10 assists.
The Terrapins entered the 2001 NCAA tournament as a No. 3 seed. The Gary Williams team had played 29-4 Duke tough three times, winning one and losing two. The fourth meeting between these rivals was expected to be close, but the Blue Devil's quick response to a 22-point first-half deficit allowed them to win by double-digits. Duke went on to win the title over Arizona, as Battier scored 25 points against them. The following year, Maryland captured their own national championship.
In February, Michigan State defeated the Badgers in the Big Ten tournament semifinals and in the Final Four. It was an amazing run for Wisconsin to make it that far. The team of Dick Bennett upset top seed Arizona 66-58 in the round of 32 and then defeated LSU and Purdue. The Spartans had a perfect record against the Badgers with 20 points from Morris Peterson. The national title was captured by Michigan State with a 13 point victory over Florida.
Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle and Illinois defeated Michigan by an average of 14 points. Steve Fisher was installed as the interim coach and the Wolverines gained steam. In the Elite Eight, Michigan defeated Virginia by 37 points. Glen Rice scored 28 points and Sean Higgins put-back with two seconds remaining gave the Wolverines a win.
The Sooners won 21 of 22 from late January through the national semifinals. Two eight-point wins over KU did not matter when these two met again. Danny Manning recorded one of the greatest individual title-game performances in the event's history with 31 points, 18 rebound and five steals.
The 1987 brackets had the surprise of the Friars. Rick Pitino's shooters capitalized on the new 3-point line and defeated Georgetown by 15 in the regional final. PC ran up against the Syracuse zone. The Orange advanced to a national title game where they lost to Indiana on a game-winner.
During the regular season, the two No. 1 seeds split, with each winning on their home floor. The second game was played at the Madison Square Garden, where John Thompson unveiled his own version of the lucky sweater. The sweater game was won by the Hoyas and they repeated it two more times. In the Big East tournament title game, Georgetown defeated St. John's, and then again in the national semifinals. Chris Mullin was limited to eight shots from the field, while Reggie Williams put up 20 for the Hoyas.
The perfect game is when a team shoots 22-of-28 from the floor and beats a defending champion. Maybe the result shouldn't have been seen as stunning. During the Big East season, the Wildcats lost to the Hoyas twice by a combined total of nine points. In the title game, Ed Pinckney scored 16 against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown defense held its 37 previous opponents to 39.8% shooting from the floor.
The Tar Heels had lost to the top-seeded Virginia in Chapel Hill and had gone 0-2 against them in the conference. In the national semifinals, UNC's Al Wood went off for 39 points, while the other team was held to 3-of-10 shooting from the floor. The Heels lost to Indiana in the title game of the D-I tournament, while the Hoos won the third-place game.
The last men's team to record a perfect season in Division I was the Hoosiers. It was not easy for Bob Knight's team. Look no further than IU's two regular-season wins over the Wolverines that year. The game in Bloomington went to overtime before Indiana prevailed. In the national title game, the Hoosiers defeated Michigan by 18 thanks to a combined 51 points from Scott May and Kent Benson. The teams were unseeded until the 1979 tournament.
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