Then there were four…

The 2023 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball Final Four is here. On Friday, the top four women’s teams in the country face off in Dallas, Tx. to determine who will be crowned the champions.

The men’s Final Four is set to take place on Saturday in Houston, Tx. with each team hoping to leave as the champion .

The teams competing in the men’s Final Four are San Diego State University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Miami(Fl.).

The teams in the women’s final four include Virginia Tech University, the University of South Carolina, the University of Iowa and Louisiana State University.

Of the four teams competing in the final four, only one team has reached this point before and that is UConn.

Of the four teams competing in the final four, only one team has reached this point before and that is UConn.

For the women, LSU is in the Final Four just two years after hiring head coach, Louisiana native, Kim Mulkey. Virginia Tech is making their first appearance in school history.

Led by Caitlin Clark, Iowa is making their first Final Four appearance since 1993 while their semi-final opponent South Carolina is looking to win back-to-back national titles.

Since there are new faces in both the men’s and women’s semi-finals, let’s look at how these teams were able to get to this point:

On the men’s side, none of the favorites to start the season have made it to this point.

For San Diego State, they have relied on their defense to carry them to this point. In the first two rounds, the Aztecs beat two of the lower seeds in the tournament.

In the Sweet Sixteen, the Aztecs upset the number one seed Alabama. The Aztecs then moved on and defeated Creighton by one-point in the Elite Eight to reach the Final Four for the first time in program history.

Being the underdog in all but one of their matchups, Florida Atlantic has beaten Memphis, Tennessee and Kansas State to reach the Final Four for the first time in program history.

Miami made it to the Final Four for the first time by playing team ball. The Hurricanes beat Drake in the first round and followed it up with a win against Indiana.

In the Sweet Sixteen, Miami pulled off the upset against the one-seed Houston. In the Elite Eight, the Hurricanes battled back from a 13-point deficit to defeat the two-seed Texas.

UConn got the job done with defense. The Huskies had to go through Iona, Saint Mary’s, Arkansas and Gonzaga to reach their fourth Final Four in program history. Throughout the tournament, UConn has had the biggest margin of victory of all 64 teams.

Now let’s discuss the women’s side:

South Carolina collected wins against Norfolk State University, the University of South Florida, the University of California Los Angles and Maryland University to reach their third straight Final Four.

The Iowa Hawkeyes, led by star guard Caitlin Clark, have defeated Southeastern-Louisiana University, the University of Georgia, Colorado University and the University of Louisville to punch their first ticket to the Final Four since 1993.

In their Elite Eight victory, Clark secured the first-ever 40-point triple-double in either the women’s or men’s tournament . Before her, this had never been done in a men’s or women’s tournament game.

Virginia Tech, led by Australian phenom Georgia Amoore, defeated Chattanooga, South Dakota State University, the University of Tennessee and Ohio State University to secure their first-ever Final Four appearance.

Lastly, the LSU Tigers defeated the University of Hawaii, the University of Michigan, the University of Utah and the University of Miami(Fl) to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2008. The Tigers are led by Angel Reese who is a double-double machine with 32 on the season which is an SEC single-season record.

On Friday, LSU will take on Virginia Tech followed by South Carolina and Iowa.

On Saturday, San Diego State will face Florida Atlantic and UConn will face Miami.

All women’s games will be televised on ESPN and all men’s games will be televised on CBS.