Here’s why each Final Four team is qualified to cut down the nets as national champions.
The Final Four is set in Minneapolis. The Virginia Cavaliers, Auburn Tigers, Texas Tech Red Raiders and Michigan State Spartans are all one game away from the National Championship. Virginia is the only one seed to make it this far. Texas Tech, Michigan State and Auburn all had to knock out the one seed in their region in either the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8 to get here.
Of the four teams in the Final Four, Auburn is the only outlier. Everybody else hangs their hat on the defensive end. Texas Tech and Virginia are probably two of the best defensive teams in the country without question.
Auburn, on the other hand, plays at a frenetic pace and loves to shoot the three ball. They’re getting a draw in Virginia that kind of helps their knack for shooting the three. Virginia’s pack-line defense forces teams to shoot the three ball, and if you’re going to beat them you can’t go cold from deep.
As for the Red Raiders and Spartans, this game might be the first one to 40 points wins. There’s a difference between defending teams and disrupting teams on defense. Texas Tech disrupts and suffocates you for an entire 40 minutes until you eventually crumble under the pressure. That’s exactly what happened to Gonzaga in the Elite 8. It led to a crucial mistake by Josh Perkins at the end of the game that ultimately cost them the game.
Let’s look at one reason each team can win the National Championship.