There's nothing better than winning the NCAA Tournament.
Actually, there is: winning the NCAA Tournament twice in the same year.
The UConn men's and women's teams did so in 2004, and then did so again in 2014...and it's now 2024 and both teams are still alive as the calendar flips from March to April.
The defending champion UConn men's team, looking to become the first team to repeat since Florida, advanced to the Final Four on Saturday after defeating Illinois 77-52. They will play an Alabama team making its first ever appearance in the Final Four.
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The No. 3 women's team will look to punch their ticket to the Final Four on Monday when they play top-seeded USC.
But another program is already represented in the Final Four of both brackets.
NC State's men's and women's teams both advanced to the semifinals of their respective tournaments on Sunday.
A return to the semifinals had been decades in the making for both teams. The No. 11 men's team has been this March's lone Cinderella story, reaching its first Final Four since 1983 when they won the national title under Jim Valvano. They upset No. 4 Duke 76-64 in the Elite Eight on Sunday to become the second team of the day from campus to advance.
Earlier in the game, the men's team watched on the video board as the NC State women's team dribbled out the clock in their 76-66 win over top-seeded Texas to end a 26-year Final Four drought.
Now each NC State team is two victories away from cutting down the nets as national champions.
Has a school won men’s and women’s basketball championships in the same year?
Only one school has had dual NCAA Tournament championships in the same year. And it has done it twice.
In 2004, UConn became the first school in Division I history to win both the men’s and women’s titles in the same year. The men's team that was led by Emeka Okafor and coached by Jim Calhoun defeated Georgia Tech to win the title. The following night, Diana Taurasi, Geno Auriemma and the Lady Huskies defeated Tennessee to win their third consecutive national championship.
On the 10-year anniversary of that historic dual-championship season in 2014, UConn repeated the accomplishment. Shabazz Napier led the men's team to a win over Kentucky, and the following night, Breanna Stewart led the women's team to victory over Notre Dame.
How many schools reached the men's and women's national championship game in the same year?
UConn is the only team to win both titles in the same season, but two other schools have had their men's and women's teams advance to the national championship.
Duke became the first to do so in NCAA Division I history during the 1999 tournaments, but both teams finished as runner-up with the men falling to Connecticut and the women losing to Purdue.
Both teams from Louisville advanced to their respective 2013 national championship games. The men's team won the title by defeating Michigan, the women's team lost to UConn.
How many schools reached the men's and women's Final Four in the same year?
NC State became the 14th school in tournament history to send both its men's and women's teams to the Final Four in the same season, per the NCAA. UConn will look to become the 15th on Monday.
Here are all schools to do so...
- Georgia, 1983 (Both lost in Final Four)
- Duke, 1999 (Both lost championship game)
- Oklahoma, 2002 (men lost in Final Four, women lost championship game)
- Texas, 2003 (Both lost in Final Four)
- UConn, 2004 (Both won championship)
- Michigan State, 2005 (men lost in Final Four, women lost championship game)
- LSU, 2006 (Both lost in Final Four)
- UConn, 2009 (men lost in Final Four, women won championship)
- UConn, 2011 (men won championship, women lost in Final Four)
- Louisville, 2013 (men won championship, women lost championship game)
- UConn, 2014 (Both won championship)
- Syracuse, 2016 (men lost in Final Four, women lost championship game)
- South Carolina, 2017 (men lost in Final Four, women won championship)
- NC State, 2024
