March Madness, the Final Four tonight: Uconn-Illinois and Arizona-Michigan

Four contenders, one title to be awarded. Michigan, Arizona, Uconn and Illinois are the protagonists of the collegiate Final Four staged in Indianapolis. Four blue-blooded basketball programs, there is no Cinderella. But the Wolverines and Wildcats arrived in Indiana as No. 1 seeds. 1, by prediction, the Huskies succeeded thanks to an epochal comeback against Duke, the Fighting Illini snuck into a quadrant of the 68-team bracket cleared by the premature eliminations of Florida and Houston. Different stories, the same goal: to cut the last retina on the Italian night between Monday and Tuesday, to win the 2026 university title.

CARPE DIEM

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The moment must be seized, when the finish line is so close. Because you never know when the opportunity will come again, when the window of opportunity will close, as they call it in America. To clarify, Uconn has a 12-1 record at the Final Four, the best percentage ever, while its opponent at Lucas Oil Stadium, Illinois, is 1-5, the worst record in all time. Kids and student-athletes battle on the parquet: talent counts, but mental strength, team cohesion and coaches make the difference. Dan Hurley, the Huskies coach, is the only one to have already triumphed, in 2023 and 2024 compared to Brad Underwood, Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May. So Uconn favorite? Slowly, don’t run. On paper, the Michigan-Arizona match is the anticipated final. However, when a season is decided in 40 minutes, the balance of power on paper is virtual and March Madness, even in April, always offers

UCONN-ILLINOIS (Sunday 09.09)

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The Huskies (33-5 season record), six NCAA titles under their belt, have been able to eliminate Michigan State and Duke, and are already tested against opponents of rank and quality. They don’t have phenomena in their quintet, many good players, if anything. The phenomenon is sitting on the bench, Hurley, who two summers ago said no to the Los Angeles Lakers to remain coaching in Storrs. He didn’t regret it. The center Tarris Reed, tall and big, is raging at the Tournament, a man among the boys and that’s not just a figure of speech: he is almost 23 years old and takes advantage of his physical and age advantage compared to his equal opponents. Alex Karaban is the man of important shots, the senior, 4th and final year, the historical memory of the recent triumphs of the Connecticut state university. Braylon Mullens, the freshman guard from Indiana, is the Duke defender who mocked with the passing triple from mid-court at the last second. The Fighting Illini, the No. 3 seed – Uconn is a 2 – have a 28-8 record on the season. Illinois, which has never won the NCAA title, has an advantage in centimeters and a strong European connotation. They call them Balkan 5: the Serbian wing Andrej Stojakovic – son of Peja, the former NBA star – second scorer despite coming off the bench, the Montenegrin wing David Mirkovic, slow as a snail, but very solid in terms of fundamentals, the gigantic Croatian centers Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, brothers, plus the Croatian reserve Mihailo Petrovic. They are the backbone of Coach Underwood’s team which boasts the best NBA prospect on the court, freshman Keaton Wagler, a winger who averages almost 18 points. The difference could be made by the greater athleticism of the Huskies, the previous season in November was won by Uconn.

ARIZONA-MICHIGAN (Sunday 2.49 am)

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Tommy Lloyd rejected the North Carolina high court to remain at the helm of Arizona, renewing his contract. His Wildcats (36-2) won the West Regional after dominating the Big 12 Conference in the regular season. Arizona won the NCAA title in 1997 and sent a myriad of prospects to the NBA, but hadn’t returned to the Final Four for 25 years. The Wildcats are balanced, the entire starting lineup scores double figures in points, and young, with three freshmen among the starters, the guard Brayden Burries, the best NBA prospect, the wing Koa Peat and the other wing, the German Ivan Kharchenkov. Curiosity: the Wildcats have Bryce James, son of LeBron, on their roster, but the freshman, still immature in terms of technical development, hasn’t played a single minute this season, Coach Lloyd has asked for a redshirt for him, basically by never playing he has preserved his eligibility for the season and will be able to compete, this time for real, as a first year next season. No interviews for the son of art “We protect him, no to the media circus. Along the way, by working, he will become a player good enough to play as a Wildcat”. Michigan (35-3), in its ninth Final Four (it won the title in 1989) has conquered the Big Ten, the best conference in America. In terms of talent, they are the team to beat, the one with the best prospects. Yaxel Lendeborg, the “Dominican LeBron” exhibits a combination of athleticism, technique and experience that is unrivaled. He saw it all, first junior college because he didn’t have the grades to go to Division I universities, then the stop at Alabama Birmingham, a peripheral NCAA college. Now he is a Lottery prospect with a view to the 2026 Draft. The other wing from Ann Arbur University, Morez Johnson, is a highlight athlete, a jumper with special effects. The duel between the centers, between European giants, will be unmissable and perhaps decisive. In the Wildcats jersey the Lithuanian Motiejus Krivas, 218 centimetres, with the yellow one made famous by the Fab 5 the Spanish Aday Mara, 221 centimetres. Whoever wins it gets to the final.