NCAA Tournament 2023: Teams that most resemble last year’s Final Four squads
This year’s Duke – Alabama
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A stacked team loaded with young, NBA-level talent, led by a future top-three pick, enters the tournament as one of the betting favorites after enduring constant media attention at the end of the regular season. Last year that team was the Duke Blue Devils. This time around? The Alabama Crimson Tide.
Last year’s Duke team was led by future #1 pick Paolo Banchero. The freshman was the top option on a squad that included fellow first-round NBA picks Mark Williams, A.J. Griffin, and Wendell Moore, Jr. All season the team was under the spotlight thanks to Mike Krzyzewski’s yearlong farewell tour, ultimately being vanquished, to my unending delight, by Carolina in the Final Four.
Alabama has faced a different kind of scrutiny, thanks to star forward Brandon Miller‘s alleged involvement in a shooting that left one person dead. Though Miller hasn’t been charged with anything, a cloud has hung over the program and how they’ve handled the incident. Miller, who might have had a shot to be the #1 pick if not for French Monstar Victor Wembanyama, is, like Banchero, an athletic freshman forward that few, if any, college players are capable of defending. Though it got overshadowed in the Coach K retirement tour, Banchero also dealt with some legal issues of his own for his role in a DWI earlier in the season.
Just as Banchero was aided by fellow freshman draft picks A.J. Griffith and Trevor Keels, Miller has 6’10” freshman Noah Clowney by his side. Clowney is projected to be a late first-round pick if he comes out in this June’s draft.
Alabama faces a similar path through the tournament that Duke faced last year. A possible Big Ten opponent could await Nate Oats’ team in the second round in Maryland, just as Duke had to go through Michigan State last year. And just as Duke had to beat a tough, defensive team in Texas Tech in the Sweet Sixteen, Alabama would have to most likely grind it out against either San Diego St. or Virginia.
One advantage Alabama has over Duke is upperclassman leadership in the backcourt, with junior All-SEC second-team guard Mark Sears and senior SEC co-Sixth Man of the Year Jahvon Quinerly. Will this be enough to allow Alabama to surpass the Blue Devils’ Final Four berth?
Honorable mention
Coach K was the story of the tournament last year, at least until Caleb Love said no he wasn’t. Going out with a title would have been a storybook ending for the legendary coach, and though Jim Boeheim and Mike Brey couldn’t be bothered to get their teams to the tournament this year to pursue a similar storyline, there is one coach that stands to benefit most from cutting down the nets.
Gonzaga’s Mark Few has long been considered one of the very best in the business, but he hasn’t yet reached Valhalla. I very much doubt he would ride off into the sunset if the Zags can win six straight, but Few has the most to gain from a title. And just as Coach K dragged Duke into “blue blood” status, Few has built Gonzaga from the ground up into a truly elite program.