The 2024 NCAA® Men’s College Basketball Final Four® in Arizona is set. The teams will definitely be packing shorts.
No. 1’s UConn and Purdue along with No. 4 Alabama and No. 11 NC State make up the field for the Final Four, which takes place Saturday, April 6 at 6:00pm ET. Here’s a short preview of both matchups, along with the schedule. Be sure to check out DISH Bracket Central to keep up with the latest results. Not a DISH subscriber? Follow this link to find the best offer and subscribe to DISH today!
2024 NCAA Men’s Final Four® and Championship
North Carolina State Wolfpack vs. Purdue Boilermakers
- Saturday, April 6, 6:09 P.M. ET on TBS (Channel 139)
Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Connecticut Huskies
- Saturday, April 6, 8:49 P.M. ET on TBS
National Championship
- Monday, April 8, 9:30 P.M.M ET on TBS
#11 NC State vs. #1 Purdue
41 years after Jim Valvano’s stunning, inspiring national championship team, NC State is once again authoring an improbable run through the NCAA tournament. The 11-seeded Wolfpack would not even be here were it not for a victory in the ACC tournament. Less than a month later, they have wins over Texas Tech, Marquette, North Carolina and Duke, who they beat twice. That makes NC State the top team in North Carolina’s vaunted triangle, a result almost no one would have predicted when the team was limping to a 2-7 finish to the regular season.
The Wolfpack will face their biggest test of the season against Purdue, both literally and figuratively. Led by 7’4” National Player of the Year Zach Edey, the Boilermakers are trying to make up for their stunning first round loss in last year’s tournament. So far, so good. Purdue won their first three tournament games by double-digits. Edey scored a career-high 40 points in their gritty win over Tennessee in the Elite 8®. As a No. 1 seed, Purdue is the obvious favorite here, but NC State has been an underdog in every round and they’re still alive. The Wolfpack must be feeling like a team of destiny, and that type of confidence can go a long way in the tournament.
Opening line: Purdue -8.5, O/U: 145.5
#4 Alabama vs. #1 UConn
UConn is already synonymous with college basketball greatness, so we’re at a loss for words to describe this particular team’s dominance. Instead, we’ll let the stats do the talking, starting with 30-0. That’s the run the Huskies went on over eight minutes of game time against No. 3 Illinois in the Elite 8, and it speaks to their total control on both sides of the floor. Their 25-point victory is all the more impressive given UConn’s struggles from the 3-point line, where they missed their first 10 shots and finished 3-of-17. Just to reiterate, UConn shot a miserable 17.6% from beyond the arc and they still beat the Big Ten tournament champions by 25. Maybe there is a word to describe this team: Unreal.
Up next is Alabama and one of the best offenses in the country. In a pair of close wins over North Carolina and Clemson this weekend, the Crimson Tide scored 89 points. As ESPN points out, the team is now 19-1 this season when scoring at least 89 points. Against the Tigers, they launched 36 threes, and made almost 45% of them. If they can get UConn in a shoot-out and hit their 3-pointers at an even higher percentage, they could pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history.
Opening line: UConn -11.5, O/U: 161.5
