1. VILLANOVA WILDCATS ’85

Eighth-seeded Villanova, who had never made it past the Elite Eight, beat three of the top seven teams in the country, and then beat highly favored Georgetown 66-64 to win the national title.   

2. GEORGE MASON PATRIOTS ’06

After defeating four consecutive higher seeds, including No. 1 seed UConn in an overtime thriller, George Mason is one of two 11th-seeded teams to achieve a spot in the Final Four.

3. TEXAS WESTERN MINERS (UTEP) ’66

The Miners defeated Kentucky 75-65 with an all African-American starting lineup, winning the school’s only men’s basketball national title. They were portrayed in the movie, “Glory Road.”

4. DAVIDSON WILDCATS ’08

Stephen Curry carried the team, averaging 31.6 points a game. With an enrollment of 1,700 students, Davidson was finally defeated by Kansas in the Elite Eight.

5. KANSAS JAYHAWKS ’88

The Jayhawks got off to a mediocre start, finishing the regular season 21-11. Yet, “Danny and the Miracles” became the team with the most losses to win a national championship.

6. NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK ’83

The Wolfpack clinched a birth in the tournament by defeating UNC and UV. They went on to defeat the Phi Slama Jama team by dunking an air ball to win the national championship.     

7. LOYOLA MARYMOUNT LIONS ’90

LMU made its mark with a scoring average of 122.4 points per game and making it to the Elite Eight, despite losing star Hank Gathers who passed away during a game earlier in the season.

8. RHODE ISLAND RAMS ’98

As an eighth-seeded team, the Rams defeated Murray State, Kansas and Valparaiso in the NCAA tournament, but lost to Stanford 79-77 in the Elite Eight.  

9. BUTLER BULLDOGS ’10

A 32-4 record puts the Bulldogs with the best record amongst the Final Four teams standing. Some oddsmakers have even given them a 4-1 chance to win the final four. 

10. CORNELL BIG RED ’10

In the Sweet 16, first-seeded Kentucky ended the Cinderella story for Cornell, an Ivy league school that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, defeated Wisconsin.