NCAA Tournament 2023: Ranking the surprise Elite 8 teams left in the field
By Joey Loose
Undeniable history has already been made in this year’s edition of the NCAA Tournament. There have already been sixty teams eliminated, but it’s those eight teams remaining that have made their mark on the postseason. It’s an unusual crew of eight left and it’s a history-making bunch as well. This is the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament that there will not be a 1-seed in the Elite Eight. This comes after the last five champions have been top seeds, but that will not be the case in 2023.
This season’s Tournament has been less about the buzzer beaters and more about the upsets and unexpected performances. No one expected Purdue to lose to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, nor for their fellow 1-seeds to follow them out the door in the following two rounds. Alabama, Houston, and Kansas all looked elite this season, but none of them will be cutting down the nets in Houston next week. Instead, we have eight remarkable programs vying for those precious spots in the Final Four.
There’s no 15-seed like with Saint Peter’s last season, but there are unlikely teams here. Kansas State and Texas ride the momentum of new head coaches to major heights while both Florida Atlantic and San Diego State make their first ever appearances in the Elite Eight. Creighton had not been here for more than 80 years while UConn has waited nearly a decade since their championship back in 2014. Miami was here last year and Gonzaga the year before that, though neither looked like Elite Eight-quality teams earlier this season.
We know the names of these teams who have busted brackets across the nation, but now we’re going to do our best to rank them. This season has been nothing short of incredible and we have seven more games left to wow us until we crown a champion in Houston. All eight of these teams have proven their worth across the last week and a half in the NCAA Tournament, and we’ll be considering their whole bodies of work and how they’re playing at this very moment. Let’s get right into the rankings, keeping in mind that these are eight extremely impressive teams.