Upon Further Review

It would seem as though many of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament came into games this year riding a pretty wicked hangover, whether it be a uber-talented but young roster in Kentucky losing to a point gaurdless, offensively-impaired West Virginia team or a Kansas team, long considered the front runner, losing in the second round to a Northern Iowa team that has as many unpronounceable names as KU has lottery picks (which is a lot). The tournament has seemingly been typified not by great players or performances, as we expect come March, but rather by a lack of execution. I seemingly watched countless games where, coming down to the end of the game, teams would struggle to get a shot off, turn the ball over, or chuck a three from 6 feet behind the line. So what do the teams that advanced have that the teams that lost don't? Here's my four defining characteristics of the Final Four teams:

1. Veteran Team - Not just a veteran leader, but a veteran team. One of the most interesting stats of the Final Four is the number of freshmen starting for the Final Four teams - zero. In today's basketball a sophomore is a veteran, and these teams all start players that are at least in their second year on the court. Most of the best players left are upperclassmen, including Duke's Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, and Nolan Smith; Michigan State's Raymar Morgan, Durrell Summers, and Chris Allen; West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler; and Butler's Matt Howard. Some of these players even made it to their senior years. Notably, there are few freshmen contributors left in the final four.

2. Conference Champions - All of these teams won a conference championship of some sort. West Virginia, Duke, and Butler came into the tournament having won their conference tournaments, with Duke, Butler and Michigan State having won at least a share of the regular season title. What does that equate to? Champions, winners, and hot teams . Butler came into the tournament riding the nation's longest winning streak; perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to see them in the Final Four.

3. Defense - They say that defense wins championships and it still holds true. Butler is noted for having one of the stingiest man-to-man defenses in the country, allowing only 59.6 pts/gm this season. Michigan State, as always, is one of the toughest teams in the tournament, and with Izzo's teams that always starts on the defensive side. West Virginia has won on its defense all year, tough much like Michigan State, West Virginia mixes in a 1-3-1 zone with other defenses to keep teams off balance - it certainly worked against Kentucky. And Duke, though not necessarily known for their defense, has sacrificed points for defense and rebounding from their bigs and has allowed an average of only 56 pts/gm in the tournament.

4. Chemistry - I am admittedly a huge believer in a team that likes each other. Chemistry is more than that, but put simply I like to think of chemistry in sports meaning the desire to win not for you but the guy sitting next to you. Chemistry is often the result of veterans that play with each other for multiple years, but it can also be inherent in the team's culture. All of these teams seemingly have a culture that is the embodiment of the coach, whether it be the toughness of Tom Izzo or the intelligence and number crunching of Brad Stevens.

This isn't to say that none of the other teams have some of these characteristics, but rather that these teams have all of these characteristics. As a Kansas fan, though they had a fantastic year I felt like the team had a bit of an identity crisis the entire year and it finally came back to bite them in the end. Kentucky was young, Syracuse's defense wasn't the same with Onauku in the middle, Villanova forgot how to win, etc. As for who I'm picking, I'm going to save the embarrassment after having picked one final four team between my two brackets.