By Larry Smith - IlliniGuys Co-Founder

March 25. 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

By now, most of you have figured out that I'm a numbers nerd. Give me an inch and I'll create a spreadsheet!

With that, I've been charting where college hoops is heading for the past few years. There have been massive changes in the sport - from NIL and the virtual disappearance of transfer hurdles to legendary championship winning coaches leaving the game. And I have preached for years about the importance of reaching the NCAA's second weekend from a visibility & branding standpoint. Those are the teams that the media focuses on and gets to know. They commonly appear on preseason Top 25 lists, sometimes regardless of who is actually on the current roster.  Their wins get talked about and their best players get promoted. The biggest names in college basketball are those consistently in the regional semifinals. It's no coincidence that the Illini appeared on network television seven times this season, one year removed from their first Elite Eight trip since 2005. When head coach Brad Underwood arrived nine years ago, most Illinois games could only be seen on BTN Plus.

At the same time, there are bluebloods with banners hanging that are getting dustier with each passing season. Take nothing away from the success that was accomplished, but - in a world where everyone is handing out bags and there are so many teams with more recent success - how powerful are those legacies compared to the here and now?

-Kentucky last wore a national crown 14 years ago.
-Next spring, Indiana fans will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their last hoops championship.
-11 different coaches combined to deliver just one NCAA title to UCLA in the half-century since the legendary John Wooden retired and even that crown is now 31 years old.

Parity exists today in a way we haven't seen in generations. There have been five Final Fours in this decade and incredibly 18 different teams have filled those slots. Only two-time champion UConn and Houston have made it to college basketball's final weekend twice since the pandemic cancelled the 2020 NCAA tournament.

So, who are the elite teams of today? Which teams garner the most attention and can point to the scoreboard as being among the nation's best, based more on today's body of work and not of its program's history?

I took a look at those teams that have reached multiple Sweet 16s during the 2020's while having NBA first round draft picks in multiple years this decade. Adding those to the three other national champions who didn't make that list and these 16 teams stand above the rest:

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Baylor
Duke
Florida
Gonzaga
Houston
Illinois
Kansas
Michigan
North Carolina
Purdue
Tennessee
UCLA
UConn

Some other notes of 2020's parity:

--How does the start of this decade compare with others in the past? The only decade with more Final Four participants in its first five years was the 1940's, which saw 19 different teams in the tournament's infancy. By comparison, there were only 12 teams in the first five years of the 1990's.

--Four teams (Alabama, Florida Atlantic, Miami, San Diego St.) made their first Final Four appearances in the two-year span of 2023 & 2024. That was the first time that had happened since 1970 (Jacksonville, New Mexico St., St. Bonaventure) & 1971 (W. Kentucky).

--The five historic (blueblood) teams who have won the most titles are UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, and Indiana. (UConn has six, but their first came in 1999). We have now gone seven years (no NCAA tourney in 2020) without any of those five winning the national championship, tying the longest drought ever from 1941-47.