After sixty-four games, the 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament has reached the Final Four.
No. 2 UConn and No. 3 Illinois advance to Saturday’s national semifinals (6:09 p.m. ET), followed by a showdown between No. 1 seeds Arizona and Michigan (8:49 p.m. ET). We asked 44 of ESPN’s college basketball talents — reporters, analysts and former coaches and players who have been covering these teams, analyzing film and crunching the numbers this season — to make their picks in both sports. And Their champion.
Let’s take a quick look at which teams they’re advancing to Monday’s championship game – and who they’re picking to cut down the net.
last four prophecies
The results were closer to 50/50 in one game but closer to 70/30 in the other.
Twenty-four voters chose UConn to defeat Illinois, while 20 chose the other side. And 29 voters chose Arizona while only 15 chose Michigan. The winner of the Arizona–Michigan game was often picked to cut down the net in the title game.
However, before we get into that, let’s take a look at the pre-tournament tape: 60 of the voters initially surveyed After the field of 68 was determined, no one predicted every Final Four team – but six correctly predicted at least three of the four. The most popular combination was Arizona, Michigan, and Illinois, with Duke (twice) or Michigan (once) picking UConn to win the East. The second most popular choices were Arizona, Michigan and UConn; Two of the electors with those selections had Florida coming from the South rather than Illinois. And finally, one voter had Arizona, Illinois, and the Yukon, but the state of Iowa won the Midwest region instead of Michigan.
National Champion Prediction
As we mentioned above, nearly every poll polled picked the winner of Arizona-Michigan to win it all. Twenty-eight, or about 64%, of voters are riding with the Wildcats; 14 have put their trust in the Wolverines.
Only two picked the winner of UConn–Illinois, and both decided on the Huskies, who are chasing their third national title in four seasons.
