INDIANAPOLIS -- The men's Final Four tips off today at Lucas Oil Stadium with a field that looks, on paper, like the most balanced in years. No. 2 UConn faces No. 3 Illinois at 6:09 p.m. Eastern. No. 1 Arizona meets No. 1 Michigan at 8:49 p.m. Both games air on TBS. [1] Only UConn was ranked in the top four of the AP preseason poll. Michigan was seventh, Arizona thirteenth, Illinois seventeenth. [2] Yet all four are here, and the combined paths they took to Indianapolis tell a story about a sport in which size, experience, and defensive identity have reasserted themselves over the three-point revolution.

The organizing narrative, fairly or not, belongs to UConn. Dan Hurley's Huskies won national championships in 2023 and 2024, making him one of just three active Division I coaches with multiple titles alongside Kansas's Bill Self and St. John's Rick Pitino. [3] The three-peat bid collapsed last March in a second-round loss to eventual champion Florida, a defeat that Hurley's associate coach Kimani Young later attributed to the team's fixation on the goal itself: "We never talked about championships... It was about winning the day." [3] The program spent the offseason rewiring its culture. Senior Alex Karaban, a starter on both title teams, described the shift: "Play with more joy, just enjoy the present, enjoy the journey." [3]

The journey this time wound through Furman, UCLA, Michigan State, and a 73-72 Elite Eight win over Duke on Braylon Mullins's last-second three-pointer. [2] Mullins, a five-star freshman from Indiana, hit the shot that sent UConn to the Final Four in Indianapolis -- his home state. The narrative writes itself, and Hurley, for once, seems willing to let it. "I'm going to let myself enjoy the parts that you should enjoy," he told reporters this week. [3]

Illinois arrives as the field's defensive transformation story. The Fighting Illini held three NCAA tournament opponents below 1.10 points per possession, a mark that would have seemed impossible given their regular-season profile as a team that lived and died by three-point shooting. [2] Keaton Wagler, the 6-foot-5 projected lottery pick, is the engine. David Mirkovic is the rebounder who makes the second chances possible. The weakness is fragility from deep: 36 percent from three in wins, 31.8 percent in losses. [2] Against UConn's length -- Tarris Reed Jr. is a dominant post presence who opened the tournament with a 31-point, 27-rebound performance against Furman -- Illinois will need its perimeter game to function or face a frontcourt mismatch it cannot overcome. [4]

The second semifinal features the field's most contrasting philosophies. Arizona, under Tommy Lloyd, is a paint-dominant team that led the nation in free throw attempts at 20 per game and ranked fifth in paint points at over 42 per game. [2] Against Purdue in the Elite Eight, Arizona generated 60 paint points combined with 30 free throw points in a 79-64 win. [2] Freshman Koa Peat is the headliner, but the roster runs deep: Ivan Kharchenkov, Jaden Bradley, and Brayden Burries all contribute. The limitation is severe: Arizona ranked 363rd nationally in three-point attempt rate and made double-digit threes only four times all season. [2] If Michigan can force the Wildcats into a perimeter game, the structural weakness becomes fatal.

Michigan, meanwhile, has been the tournament's most explosive team since March 1. The Wolverines are shooting 40 percent from three over that span and demonstrated what ESPN called "nearly flawless execution" in a 95-62 Elite Eight demolition of Tennessee. [2] Yaxel Lendeborg scored 27 points in that game. The frontcourt features three projected first-round draft picks in Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara. The weakness is the mirror image of the strength: when the three-point shooting falters -- 28 percent in their three losses -- the offense loses its creative edge. [2]

What makes this Final Four unusual is the physical profile. All four teams rely on length and size. The three-point-dependent mid-major Cinderella is absent. The guard-heavy, pace-and-space team that has defined the last decade of March Madness is absent. These are big, physical teams that rebound, defend, and play in the paint. It is a Final Four that Pat Summit would have recognized.

Hurley, asked this week about whether this year's team compares to his championship squads, declined the comparison. He is trying not to think about championships. He is trying to enjoy it. The last time he tried to enjoy a three-peat, the enjoyment consumed the process and the process collapsed. This time, the joy is supposed to be the process.

Whether it works will be clear by 11 p.m. Eastern. The winners play Monday for the national championship. UConn knows how that game feels. The other three are still learning.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos