March Madness 2021 Had a New Champion
Last year, the 2021 National Championship game consisted of two basketball programs who had never won a National Title before. The Baylor Bears faced off with the 26-0 undefeated Gonzaga team and toppled them 86-70 to bring home their first and only NCAA National Championship. Meanwhile, Gonzaga had their hearts crushed and enter the 2022 tournament as the #1 overall seed, still seeking their first championship. They are currently the favorites to win March Madness, but what other top seeds are also trying secure their first NCAA title in program history?
#1 Seed Gonzaga Bulldogs
For the #1 seeds, only Gonzaga has not secured a championship yet for their program. Kansas leads the #1 seeds with 3 titles (most recently in 2008), followed by Arizona and Baylor who both have 1 title each (Arizona in 1997 and Baylor in 2021).
Gonzaga does have two elite 8 appearances and two NCAA finals appearances. Their first finals appearance came in 2017 in a 65-71 loss against North Carolina, prior to falling to Baylor four seasons later. Mark Few and the Bulldogs have felt like a blue blood for quite a few seasons now, however until they can win the whole thing, they will have their weaker mid-major conference and zero NCAA titles blocking their path to being considered a true-blue blood of college basketball.
#2 Seed Auburn Tigers
Speaking of blue bloods, for the #2 seeds, it is blue blood central. Kentucky, Duke, and Villanova combine for 16 National Championships. Kentucky leads the way with 8 titles (most recently in 2012), followed by Duke with 5 (most recently in 2015) and Villanova with 3 (most recently in 2016 and 2018). The lone program who is still searching for their first title is Auburn.
The Auburn Tigers do have two Elite 8 appearances under the belt, one in 1986 and the other more recently in 2020. Additionally, they secured their first and only final 4 appearance in 2019 before falling to the eventual champions, Virginia Cavaliers. Bruce Pearl is just one of two coaches in their region of the bracket who have a final four appearance, the other being Bill Self for the Kansas Jayhawks. With Jabari Smith also being projected as the #1 overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft, Auburn has both the coach and the high-end talent to get it done.
#3 seeds Texas Tech Red Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers, and Purdue Boilermakers
The #3 seeds are the opposite of blue blood central in that the four programs on the 3-line have just one combined title among them. The Wisconsin Badgers won their lone National Title back in 1941. That means that the Badgers are going on 81 years without a title, but they are still one of just 37 collegiate basketball programs with an NCAA Championship to their name, so they definitely should not be discredited.
Texas Tech has had the most success recently of the three programs still looking for their first championship. In 2018, the Red Raiders reached the Elite 8, but lost to the soon-to-be champions in Villanova. Just one year later, they reached the National Championship but fell short in a 77-85 loss against the same Virginia team that prevented Auburn from winning their first title. Both of these deep runs but disappointing losses came with Chris Beard coaching TTU, so it will be interesting to see how the Red Raiders fare in Mark Adams’ first season as head coach.
Tennessee has not had nearly as much success as the Red Raiders in March Madness. They have seven sweet 16 appearances, yet only one elite 8 appearance in 2010 when Bruce Pearl was coaching the Volunteers. Since then, Rick Barnes has taken over and been wonderful coach for them in the SEC. Despite this, now in his 7th season coaching Tennessee, Rick Barnes has only led the Volunteers past the round of 32 once, so he has a lot to prove in March Madness 2022.
Completing the trio of #3 seeds searching for their first championship are the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue becomes the third team on this list to have the 2018-2019 Virginia Cavaliers end their championship hopes. In that 2018-2019 season, Purdue went toe to toe with Virginia but fell to them in the Elite 8 and prior to that season, Purdue had already reached the Elite 8 two other times (1994 and 2000). They have one National Championship appearance from 1969, where they lost 72-92 against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (known then as Lew Alcindor) and the UCLA Bruins. 11 years later in the 1980 season, Purdue reached the Final Four again, but unfortunately fell to a Kiki Vandeweghe-led UCLA team 62-67. In 2022, they could very well see UCLA in the Elite 8 for another chance to go to the Final Four.
