How the 2023 men’s national championship matchup will play out

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship will conclude with a match between the University of Connecticut and San Diego State – a game unanticipated by the 20 million strong brackets of ESPN’s Men’s Tournament Challenge. This Monday’s showdown sees the 4-seeded Huskies – and four-time national champions – tackle the Aztecs, who will make their debut appearance in the championship game. After defeating teams such as North Carolina, Duke, and Michigan en route to the final, victory would see UConn tie Duke for the most titles won since 1985. San Diego State can become the second team to win a national championship in their first final four appearance, following UConn’s achievement in 1999, while also becoming the first ever fifth-seeded team to lift the trophy. 
In a discussion among ESPN experts Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway, and Joe Lunardi, the group acknowledged the tournament had ‘a little bit of everything’ and has been great viewing, filled with upsets and cinderella stories. However, the general consensus is that it hasn’t produced tournaments that will be widely remembered over the next two and a half decades. Despite this, there was agreement that the Big East represents a Power 6 conference and this season has demonstrated the strength of the conference. Although the UConn Huskies’ NCAA tournament success has been unrivalled in the last 25 years, San Diego State’s recent successes tell a powerful story. When Steve Fisher became San Diego State’s coach in 1999, the school struggled to attract fans to games. In Fisher’s early days, he would give away tickets to passers-by, and the team’s average attendance in 1998-1999 was just over 3,000. The Aztecs’ journey through this year’s tournament has hinged on fantastic team play and late-game heroics, epitomised by last-second shots providing the team’s path to the championship game.As for the championship game itself, if San Diego State hopes to win, ESPN analyst Sean Farnham has pointed out they’ll need to resort to manufacturing points as their preferred playing style may not work against the Huskies’ dominant defence.



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