Ranking the 2023 men’s March Madness Final Four

And then there were four.

Don’t lie and say you predicted this. This Elite Eight made history with the absence of all No. 1 seeds. Alabama, Kansas, Houston and Purdue all looked like potential champs two weeks ago when they all earned top seeds on Selection Sunday. They didn’t even get a chance to play for a shot at the Final Four.

But that chaos has produced a multitude of storylines. Florida Atlantic didn’t have an NCAA tournament win prior to its Final Four run. And while they’re never mentioned among the bluebloods, the UConn Huskies will pursue their fifth national championship since 1999 — more than Duke and North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas. Miami has a chance to win its first national championship after winning the ACC regular-season title. And San Diego State could cut down the nets for the first time in school history.

But how do these teams stack up against one another? We’re here to tell you.

Here are our rankings of the Final Four teams.

1. UConn Huskies (4-seed)
Path to the Final Four: 87-63 vs. 13-seed Iona (first round); 70-55 vs. 5-seed Saint Mary’s (second round); 88-65 vs. 8-seed Arkansas (Sweet 16); 82-54 vs. 3-seed Gonzaga (Elite Eight)

UConn entered the NCAA tournament with one of the highest ceilings in the field. Back in November at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, the Huskies beat Alabama, the NCAA tournament’s top overall seed, by 15 points. Sure, it was early in the second round of the PKI. But they proved they could battle a team with NBA talent and skill. They also beat Iowa State, which was coming off a win over then-No. 1 North Carolina, in the same event by 18 points.

Across the first two months of 2022-23, UConn won 12 of its first 14 games by at least a 14-point margin of victory. It had a more difficult time in the Big East, where it finished behind league champion Marquette, Xavier and Creighton. But you could see the potential. Now, the Huskies are like the kings of the Final Four, searching for their fifth national title since 1999, after winning their first four games by a 22.5 PPG margin of victory. They’re the 10th NCAA tournament team to win their first four tournament games by 15 points or more, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Against Gonzaga, which boasted the most efficient offense in America, UConn won by 28 points, the biggest win in the Elite Eight since 1992. The Huskies have also made 44% of its 3-pointers in the NCAA tournament. Adama Sanogo (20.0 PPG, 9.75 RPG in the NCAA tournament)…