NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest winners from 2019 NCAA Tournament

By Adam Childs | Apr 11, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: De'Andre Hunter #12 of the Virginia Cavaliers celebrates his three point basket basket late in the second half against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – APRIL 06: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders celebrates late in the second half against the Michigan State Spartans during the 2019 NCAA Final Four semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 6, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

The NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest spectacles in all of sports and it gives us some great stories along the way. Of those stories who were the biggest winners of March Madness?

Virginia became a first-time champion and Texas Tech showed they were for real. Auburn got hot at the right time and despite almost losing in the first round ran through three blue-blood programs to make their first-ever NCAA Tournament Final Four. Michigan State got over the hump of early exits lately and made a push the last weekend yet again with Tom Izzo as their head coach.

We had very few upsets and Oregon was the only double-digit seed to make it to the Sweet 16. Duke survived two last-second shot attempts to advance before running out of luck against the aforementioned Michigan State Spartans.

Jarrett Culver cemented himself as a lottery pick if he chooses to go to the NBA draft and the Big Ten had some redemption in the tournament even though their title drought has hit 19 years. Oregon saved the PAC-12 from a completely lost season and Texas Tech kept all eyes on the Big 12.

The NCAA tournament never fails to disappoint, but the first weekend went largely without drama. But the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and the Final Four did not disappoint. We had big comebacks, overtime games and some buzzer-beating shots that went in and a couple that just missed. Only one number one seed made the Final Four and the dream matchup of North Carolina and Duke in the championship game didn’t make it out of the Sweet 16.

The tournament produced some great games and some even better individual performances. But who were the biggest winners of the tournament? We take a look at the five players and/or teams that came out smelling like champions.

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