There’s a realistic chance the NCAA Men’s Tournament will end with a program cutting down the nets for the first time. Of the 16 teams left, only six have won an NCAA title. Marquette (1977) and Arizona (1997) have one championship to their credit. NC State won twice, 1974 and 1983. Among teams with more than two titles only Duke, North Carolina and Connecticut remain.
No fewer than 11 programs with at least two NCAA titles are missing from this year’s Sweet 16. Some qualifiers are necessary. It’s been a long time since San Francisco has been considered a blue blood and Oklahoma State won their two titles so long ago they were known as Oklahoma A&M.
But that list of missing programs includes such notables as UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas. Indiana, Villanova, Michigan State, Florida, Louisville and Cincinnati, teams that either missed the Big Dance altogether or failed to advance out of the opening weekend.
Some of the teams still around are candidates for that glass half-full, half-empty designation as best-program-to-never-win-it-all.
Purdue made the title game in 1969. That was the year Rick Mount averaged 33 points per game. But UCLA steamrolled them. Joe Barry Carroll led them to the 1980 Final Four. In fact Purdue beat Duke in the Elite Eight, Bill Foster’s last game at Duke. But Purdue lost to UCLA, which lost to Louisville in the finals.
Grant Hill and Tony Lang combined to shut down Glenn Robinson and top-seeded Purdue in the 1994 Elite Eight.
There’s Illinois. They’ve been to five Final Fours and lost the 2005 championship game to North Carolina 75-70.
Gonzaga’s arrival on the national stage is more recent. But it seems like they’ve spent the last decade in the top 10 and they’re still knocking on the door.
Which brings us to Houston, Duke’s Friday night opponent. The Cougars have been to six Final Fours, more than anyone without a title and more than most teams with a title.
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