Both Arizona and Illinois cut down the nets for the first time in two decades amid trips to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Top-seeded Arizona beat the No. 2 seed Purdue 79–64 on Saturday in the West Region final. Illinois, the No. 3 seed in the South Region, beat No. 9 seed Iowa 71–59 on Saturday.
Arizona hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2001, when the late Lute Olson coached the Wildcats and took national runner-up in an 82–72 loss against Duke in Minneapolis. Illinois last made a Final Four under former head coach Bruce Weber in 2005 with a 37–2 season, but fell short in the championship game against North Carolina by 72–57 in St. Louis.
On Saturday, Arizona native Koa Peat helped the Wildcats end the quarter-century drought in San Jose. Peat scored 20 points on 9 of 18 shooting, and had seven rebounds and three assists.
“They call him Mr. Arizona,” Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd told reporters afterward. “Koa is special, and I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.”
“That was my recruiting pitch,” Lloyd added. “Four, four, and four. Let’s do it. The dude, he’s amazing. His ability to perform the way he did in these moments, you know, he’s been in a lot of them.”
Peat has stepped up in the biggest games for the Wildcats with 20 or more points against No. 4 seed Arkansas during the tournament and Houston in the Big 12 championship game. He averages 14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per contest.
Arizona has a long history of success, boasting one national championship in 1997 and four previous trips to the Final Four, in 1988, 1994, 1997, and 2001. Lloyd, who has been the coach since 2021, has been working to get the Wildcats back to this point.
“The number of stories I’ve heard consistently about things that happened 10, 20, 30 years ago, it’s impressive,” Lloyd said about the Wildcats fan base. “I mean, they really hold on to the things this program accomplishes, and they hold on to our struggles as well. They’re great historians.”
For Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, the Final Four is a dream come true with a program that has its own history of success. Illinois made five Final Fours previously in 1949, 1951, 1952, 1989, and 2005.
“I’m going to get emotional, but I’ve been doing this 39 years, and you dream about this as a kid, and I dreamt about doing it at Illinois,” Underwood told reporters afterward. “Back in the day when my wife bought Tyler, who was maybe two, a Brian Cook jersey, and you knew what a special place this was. And it always has been, and there’s been no other thing for me. This is my dream job, and it’s very fulfilling to get where we’re going.”
Cook was one of the top players in Illinois history from 1999 to 2003 before he played in the NBA from 2003 to 2012. Underwood, a Kansas native, took the Illinois job in 2017.
Illinois had a three-year stretch of mediocrity at the time Underwood arrived, and the program didn’t crack .500 in his first two seasons. That changed in 2019–2020 when the team won 21 games and became a consistent top-25 program again. The Illini have appeared in the six consecutive NCAA tournaments since that season after a seven-year drought from the Big Dance.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant—I’ve never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen,” Underwood said. “I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it. For that, I just say thank you.”