There has been only one Final Four in which all four No. 1 seeds reached college basketball’s ultimate weekend. The 2008 Final Four put Memphis, UCLA, Kansas, and North Carolina together in San Antonio. A few other Final Fours gathered three No. 1 seeds. One was 1993. Another was 2015, in which the Wisconsin Badgers were a No. 1 seed… and yet were the third-highest seed at that Final Four in Indianapolis. Wisconsin had to pack its road uniforms for Indy as a lower seed, wearing red for both the national semifinal against Kentucky and the title game against Duke.
This was a heavyweight Final Four, in part because Wisconsin had burnished its reputation with a 2014 Final Four appearance. The Badgers and Kentucky were both making back-to-back appearances at the Final Four in 2015 after meeting in the 2014 semifinals. If the 2014 Final Four had star power with Florida (owner of a 30-game winning streak), Connecticut (a 3-time national champion seeking its fourth crown), Kentucky, and Wisconsin, the 2015 Final Four owned even more sex appeal. Wisconsin was an even more established team with a stronger national reputation. Duke returned to the Final Four after a five-year absence, with Mike Krzyzewski seeking a fifth national championship. Michigan State — which had reached the Final Four in previous years as a mid-level seed — was the 7 seed no team wanted to play that year. Then, of course, Kentucky brought its 38-0 record and a supreme storyline to the Final Four.
Kentucky’s unbeaten record gave this Final Four the kind of buzz a previous Final Four in Indianapolis possessed. I am talking about the 1991 Final Four. Indy hosted, but it was the Hoosier Dome back then. In 2015, 24 years later, Lucas Oil Stadium was the scene for a main-event semifinal featuring an unbeaten team.
As in 1991, that unbeaten team left the court once beaten. Wisconsin ruined Kentucky’s dream much as Duke spoiled UNLV’s season nearly a quarter of a century earlier.
Kentucky made the 2015 Final Four hugely important within the larger workings of college basketball history. Wisconsin, with its upset, made the 2015 Final Four richly and profoundly memorable.
The Badgers have never forged a bigger college basketball moment in their history. Only a national title — one won in the media spotlight as opposed to their 1941 championship, forged in relative obscurity — will top what UW did in early April of 2015 against John Calipari and his crew.