All that talent at Arizona and Michigan. All that momentum and good vibes at UConn. And somebody has to be play the part of the unheralded “little guy.” At the Final Four next weekend, that role belongs, improbably, to Illinois.
In a sign of the times, the Illinii — a Big Ten team with more wins in the conference over the last seven seasons than any other program — will pass for something resembling Cinderella when college basketball’s biggest party kicks off in Indianapolis on Saturday.
The first challenge for coach Brad Underwood’s team will be stopping a hard-charging UConn juggernaut. After being down by as many as 19 on Sunday, Braylon Mullins retrieved a loose ball near midcourt in the waning seconds against Duke and suddenly, improbably, UConn had a chance to win.
As the frantic final seconds unfolded, Huskies coach Dan Hurley figured a timeout would do little good.
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“It just felt like the window where you’ve just got to let March Madness take over,” Hurley said. “March magic.”
The Huskies have enjoyed plenty of that through the years, and this may have been their most astonishing win yet. Mullins sank a desperation 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to give UConn a 73-72 victory over top-seeded Duke, earning the Huskies a spot in the Final Four.
The Blue Devils (35-3) led by three before UConn’s Silas Demary Jr. made one of two free throws with 10 seconds left. With Duke playing keep-away to prevent the Huskies from fouling, Cayden Boozer’s pass near midcourt was deflected by Demary, and after UConn came up with the ball, Mullins swished a 3 from 35 feet away.
Braylon Mullins #24 of the UConn Huskies celebrates after shooting the game-winning three-point basket during the second half of a game against the Duke Blue Devils in the Elite Eight of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
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Emilee Chinn / Getty Images
The last two times the Huskies reached this point, they won the championship.
“It’s a UConn culture, a UConn heart,” Hurley said. “We believe we’re supposed to win this time of year.”
All these teams do.
Arizona, led by Brayden Burries, and Michigan, with Yaxel Lendeborg, have up to nine NBA prospects between them.
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The Wildcats opened as slight favorites — at plus-165 to win the championship, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. That was a shade ahead of the Wolverines, who are plus-180 after their 95-62 romp over Tennessee on Sunday.
But, in one of a few strange twists on the odds chart, the Wildcats are 1 1/2-point underdogs to Michigan in Saturday night’s second semifinal.
Illinois is a 2 1/2-point favorite over UConn and, in reality, it’s the Huskies, at plus-550, who are the biggest long shot in Indy.
Even so, the fact that Illinois — the flagship university in the nation’s sixth most populous state and a school with an enrollment of nearly 60,000 — feels most like this year’s out-of-nowhere underdog speaks more about the current state of college hoops than the Illini themselves.
They are a No. 3 seed — the highest number at the Final Four in two years. (UConn is a 2. Last season, all four No. 1s made it.)
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This year’s meeting of 1 vs. 1 — Michigan vs. Arizona — is a heavyweight matchup of power teams from power conferences.
It’s a far cry from a mere three years ago, when mid-majors Florida Atlantic (coached by Dusty May, who now leads the Wolverines) and San Diego State crashed college basketball’s biggest party.
Since then, NIL and the transfer portal have redefined the contours of player movement, another spasm of realignment has made the big conferences bigger (Arizona, now in the Big 12, was in the Pac-12 in 2023), and the high-achieving underdogs that used to make March Madness what it is have gone into a slump.
Double-digit seeds won a total of five games in this tournament (not counting the play-in round). Two years ago, they won 11 and sent one team (N.C. State) to the Final Four.
Not surprisingly, Underwood — the coach who landed on the Illinois radar a decade ago by coaching double-digit seed Stephen F. Austin to a pair of upset wins in the tournament — views his program’s trip to the Final Four more as destiny than a once-in-a-lifetime story.
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It is, however, the first trip for Illinois since 2005, when it lost to North Carolina in the title game.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant,” said Underwood, whose teams have won 96 Big Ten games since 2019-20, two more than Purdue. “I’ve never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen. I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it.”
The Big Ten knows all about this. Both Illinois and Michigan have a chance to deliver a title for the conference for the first time since Michigan State won it all in 2000.
The Illini, led by the so-called “Balkan Bloc” — a cohort of players with roots in Eastern Europe — have a potential NBA lottery pick of their own in guard Keaton Wagler.
Even so, the best-known name on the Illini roster might be Andrej Stojakovic, whose father, Peja, was a three-time NBA All-Star. Illinois is the third school in three years for the younger Stojakovic, who spent one season at Stanford and another at Cal before joining Underwood’s crew.
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The task for Illinois: Figuring out who to key on across a roster that has five players who average double figures, led by Tarris Reed Jr.
The Wildcats-Wolverines game is a high-powered matchup of programs that have shown there’s more than one way to amass talent in the era of the unlimited transfer portal and big-money name, image and likeness deals.
Four of the five starters for Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats began their careers in Tucson; the fifth, Big 12 player of the year Jaden Bradley, moved over from Alabama and has been with the Wildcats for three years.
Meanwhile, the top four players in minutes played at Michigan — Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau — all arrived from the transfer portal.
In a twist that makes perfect sense these days, both coaches parlayed roots in the mid-majors to a spot on the sport’s biggest stage. Lloyd spent decades as a top assistant for Mark Few at Gonzaga before heading to Arizona to rebuild the program after the ouster of Sean Miller in 2021.
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May led FAU to the Final Four before heading to the Michigan program that had thrived, then collapsed, under former Fab Five star Juwan Howard.
The Week 7 matchup between K-State and Arizona State will feature two of the youngest coaches in all of college football: Kenny Dillingham and Collin Klein. They are tied for the youngest in the Power 4 conferences, and only Kirby Moore of Washington State (35) and Zach Kittley (34) are younger Division I coaches.
While Dillingham didn’t play football at Arizona State, like Klein, he is at his alma mater. An injury in his high senior year forced him to stop playing and get into coaching. He became the offensive coordinator at Chaparral High School at 21 years old, and was hired just two years later by Mike Norvell as an offensive analyst at Arizona State. He went back to Tempe in 2023, after spending the previous season as the offensive coordinator at Oregon.
Both of these guys are looking to lead their alma maters to a Big 12 Championship, and this is one of those games that could be pivotal in that pursuit.
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K-State Early Opponent Preview Series: Nicholls| Washington State| Tulane| Cincinnati| Houston| Kansas
Offense
Quarterback Sam Leavitt wasn’t able to live up to the hype after leading the Sun Devils to the Big 12 Championship in 2024, and he announced he was transferring to LSU during the off-season. Dillingham and his staff were quick to fill the vacany, as they picked up former Kentucky quarterback Cutter Boley in the transfer portal.
Boley was the highest-rated quarterback to ever commit to Kentucky, as he was a consensus 4-star recruit. He had an up-and-down freshman year in 2025, as he threw for 2,160 yards, 15 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. In a loss to Tennessee, he showed off the talent by throwing for 330 yards and five touchdowns.
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The offense lost two great playmakers in Kaleek Brown and Jordan Tyson. Brown was one of the best running backs in the Big 12, as he rushed for 1,141 yards and 4 touchdowns. Tyson had to deal with injuries, but he still had 61 catches for 788 yards and eight touchdowns and ended up going No. 9 to the New Orleans Saints in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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One guy who could make a strong impact in the Arizona State offense is Boston College transfer Reed Harris. He had 39 catches for 673 yards and five touchdowns. He is a matchup nightmare, as he towers over defensive backs with his 6-foot-5 frame. He plays a style similar to Tyson, and he stands three inches taller and 17 pounds heavier.
Defense
There are a lot of changes on the defense at Arizona State, but defensive lineman C.J. Fites is a player who is capable of being an anchor on a defense. He took a major leap last season, finishing the year with 27 tackles and 6.5 sacks. He was named a preseason All-Big 12 defensive tackle and is a guy who figures to hear his name in the 2027 NFL Draft. Fite’s presence will force offenses to throw double-teams at him, and should open up opportunities for others to get after the quarterback.
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The two leading tacklers last year were linebackers Jordan Crook and Keyshaun Elliott, who had 101 and 98 tackles, respectively. With both of these players gone, Martell Hughes is a guy who the Sun Devils will need to step up.
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While there were losses in the off-season, the Sun Devils’ secondary has a chance to be one of the better units in the country. They bring back two very talented safeties in Adrian Wilson and Jessiah McGrew. The cornerback duo of Rodney Bimage Jr. and Montana Warren was good, but the arrival of LSU transfer Ashton Stamps.
He made major news last year after he hit the transfer portal after playing in only one game against Louisiana Tech. While it was a weird year, he is the type of talent that could give the Sun Devils the best secondary in the Big 12.
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Schedule
In today’s college football, many teams are becoming hesitant to take big challenges during the non-conference season. However, that isn’t the case with the Sun Devils, as they go to College Station to take on Texas A&M in Week 2. After that game, the schedule lightens up. Including the matchup against K-State, four of Arizona State’s next five games will be at home.
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The challenging part of the Sun Devils’ conference schedule is that some of their toughest matchups are on the road. They have road trips at Texas Tech, BYU, and Arizona, who are looked at as contenders in the Big 12.
Outlook
Dillingham has been outstanding early in his tenure in Tempe. After going 3-9 in his first year in 2023, he helped lead the Sun Devils to an 11-2 record and an appearance in the College Football Playoff during the 2024 season. Last year, they finished the year 8-5, despite losing quarterback Sam Leavitt early in the year.
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The Big 12 is wide-open, and the Sun Devils once again to have the pieces to compete for a spot in the conference championship.
Game Info
Date: Saturday, October, 24 Time: TBD TV: TBD Location: Mountain America Stadium Series history: Arizona State leads the all-time series, 6-1. The Sun Devils have dominated this series, and won the most recent game 24-14 in 2024. The only time the Wildcats have knocked off Arizona State was in the 2002 Holiday Bowl.
Two Arizona Public Enemy concerts in one year? As Chuck D. might say, bring the noise.
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After a searing set in February at Tempe’s Innings Festival, the legendary hip-hop group will return to metro Phoenix on Saturday, Oct. 24, to perform as part of the Arizona State Fair’s concert series.
The concert starts at 7 p.m. inside the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum with no opening act.
Public Enemy joins a growing lineup of artists set to perform at the 2026 Arizona State Fair, which runs weekends from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1.
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Previously announced Coliseum Concert Series performers include alt-rockers Gin Blossoms on Friday, Oct. 2, R&B/pop star Becky G on Friday, Oct. 9 and punk favorites The Offspring on Friday Oct. 16.
Few hip-hop acts are as iconic as Public Enemy. Fronted by Chuck D. and Flavor Flav, the group has performed since the early ‘80s and has spent decades mixing politically charged lyrics with fierce bests on classic tracks like “Fight the Power,” “Bring the Noise” and “Welcome to the Terrordome.”
Public Enemy’s upcoming concert marks the first time the iconic hip-hop act has performed at the Arizona State Fair and their latest in a series of Valley gigs. It also continues a decades-long history of Valley performances.
Over the years, Public Enemy has played venues large and small across metro Phoenix, from arenas and stadium shows to concert halls Tempe’s Marquee Theatre. The group also famously staged an impromptu performance at the long-running local hip-hop event The Blunt Club back in 2006.
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Public Enemy performs at Innings Festival on Feb. 22, 2026.
When do Arizona State Fair concert tickets go on sale?
Tickets for Gin Blossoms and Russell Dickerson are already available through azstatefair.com/concerts.
Tickets for Public Enemy at the fair go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday through azstatefair.com/concerts. A presale for subscribers to the Fair Fandom newsletter begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Reserved-seat upgrades are available for all four concerts. Each concert ticket also includes admission to the Arizona State Fair.
VIDEO: Hundreds of loved ones and first responders gathered Saturday to celebrate the life of Nicholas Hutcherson, an Arizona wildland firefighter killed late last month while battling a wildfire in Colorado.
Hutcherson was part of a Helitack crew trained to respond to remote areas and contain wildfires before they spread.
He was one of three wildland firefighters killed June 27.
His father, Ron Hutcherson, said his son sent him a text message the morning he died, saying he was on his way to a fire and would try to call that evening.
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“The text included a picture from inside his Helitack helicopter,” Ron Hutcherson said. “One of his crew members had a Snoopy on their helmet — he knew how much me and my wife loved Snoopy.”
That evening, a call came — but not from Nicholas.
Saturday, Ron Hutcherson read a letter addressed to his son, recounting their shared memories — including the moment a young Nicholas fell in love with the fire department.
