Dan Hurley: ‘We came here for rings, not watches’ (1:22)UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley says the team isn’t settling for a Final Four appearance and has championship aspirations. (1:22)
No. 2 UConn and No. 3 Illinois tip off the national semifinals Saturday (6:09 p.m. ET), followed by a battle of No. 1 seeds Arizona and Michigan (8:49 p.m. ET). We asked 46 of ESPN’s college basketball talent — reporters, analysts and former coaches and players who have been covering these teams, analyzing the film and crunching the numbers this season — to make their picks in both games and their champion.
Let’s quickly run through which teams they have advancing to Monday’s championship game — and which they’re picking to cut down the nets.
Twenty-four voters picked UConn to beat Illinois, with 22 taking the other side. And 31 voters took Arizona compared with only 15 picking Michigan. The winner of the Arizona-Michigan game was selected to cut down the nets in the title game more often than not.
Just two picked the winner of UConn-Illinois, and both settled on the Huskies, who are chasing their third national title in four seasons.
Before we get into that, though, let’s take a quick look at the pre-tournament tape: Of the 60 voters initially surveyed after the field of 68 was set, none predicted every Final Four team — but six correctly predicted at least three of the four. The most popular combination was Arizona, Michigan and Illinois, with Duke (twice) or Michigan (once) picked over UConn to win the East. The second-most popular pick was Arizona, Michigan and UConn; the two voters with those selections had Florida instead of Illinois coming out of the South. And finally, one voter had Arizona, Illinois and UConn, but with Iowa State winning the Midwest region rather than Michigan.
Dan Hurley: ‘We came here for rings, not watches’ (1:22)UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley says the team isn’t settling for a Final Four appearance and has championship aspirations. (1:22)
UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley says the team isn’t settling for a Final Four appearance and has championship aspirations. (1:22)
Sixty-four games later, the 2026 men’s NCAA tournament is down to the Final Four.
The results were one vote away from 50/50 in one game but close to 70/30 in the other.