March Madness: 10 shining moments from historic Final Fours

March Madness: 10 shining moments in Final Four history

Michigan State guard Earvin Johnson and Indiana State forward Larry Bird answer questions for reporters during a press conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tomorrow, the two players will face off when their teams meet in the NCAA Final Four Championship, a game many feel will be a classic matchup of two collegiate superstars. /

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Former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, Richard Hamilton and the rest of Connecticut Huskies 1999 NCAA men’s national championship team were honored at halftime on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019 at XL Center in Hartford, Conn. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/TNS via Getty Images) /

8. UConn pulls off one of the biggest upsets in finals history

One of the best parts of March Madness is all the upsets, and one of the biggest upsets in tournament history occurred in the1999 Final Four. After a dominant regular season, many assumed that the national championship would go to Duke, which was having one of its best seasons in the Mike Krzyzewski era.

The Blue Devils stampeded through the regular season, going 32-1 to capture the ACC’s regular season and tournament titles. Led by future NBA stars like Elton Brand and Shane Battier, Duke cruised through to the Final Four and scraped by Michigan State 68-62 to enter the title game on a 32-game winning streak.

The opposition was the University of Connecticut, one of the more lightly accomplished schools in the Big East at the time. Jim Calhoun’s team had made its first Final Four, but the oddsmakers were not impressed with the Huskies’ 33-2 record entering the game, installing Duke as 9.5 point favorites.

The Huskies proved all the doubters wrong by toppling Duke 77-74 to claim the first championship in program history, and the first of three titles Calhoun would win at UConn. Richard Hamilton, who would go on to have a long career in the NBA, scored 27 points in the championship game and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

In terms of pure point spreads, UConn is the largest underdog to win a title game in the history of the NCAA Tournament. That alone earns a spot on this list of memorable Final Four moments.