NCAA Tournament: Ranking the unlikeliest Final Four runs since 2000
By Joey Loose
8. 2023 San Diego State (5-seed)
Before Steve Fisher took over the San Diego State program before the turn of the century, the Aztecs had appeared in just three NCAA Tournaments. He spent nearly two decades turning this into a competitive program before leaving it in the hands of longtime aide Brian Dutcher back in 2017. What stung a great deal for this program was their 2020 squad had legitimate title hopes, spending a good chunk of the season in the AP Top 10, but that postseason was washed away by the national pandemic.
Ranked 19th in the AP Top 25 poll in the preseason, the Aztecs had high expectations this season and have done their best to live up to them. Their trip to the Maui Invitational began with a double-digit win over Ohio State, but included tough losses to Arizona and Arkansas. While the Aztecs would end up losing a few games in conference play, they’d get the last laugh by winning the MWC Tournament back in early March, nabbing themselves a 5-seed after a great regular season, but this deep rotation of defensive specialists was not happy just making the Big Dance.
The Aztecs advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the third time, and got Dutcher his first pair of Tourney wins, taking care of business against 12-seed Charleston and 13-seed Furman, as the Paladins had upset Virginia two days earlier. What cements this run was their performance against Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen, with an incredible run in the second half to knock out the Tournament’s #1 overall seed. Two days later, the Aztecs advanced to their first ever Final Four by knocking out 6-seed Creighton, avenging their Tournament loss from the first round from the previous season.
San Diego State is an impressive defensive machine who have hit enough shots down the stretch in these tough games to get to the Final Four, and their season isn’t over quite yet. This is a major breakthrough for the program, becoming the MWC’s first ever team in the Final Four. They may have avoided the other Top 4 teams in this region, but it was going to take a monumental effort to upset Alabama and they kept their cool against a potentially under-seeded Creighton as well.