The No. 1 seeded UConn Huskies entered the 2024 NCAA Tournament with the best odds to win at +400 on DraftKings Sportsbook. That means the books believe that UConn will repeat as champions, a feat that doesn’t happen often in college basketball, let alone any sport. But when was the last time we saw a college basketball team repeat as champions? We’re going to look back at history and fill you in.
NCAA Tournament history: Back-to-back champions
Before we get into it, let’s look at teams that have come close or at least made the Final Four in consecutive seasons. It doesn’t happen as often as you think. Granted, this is in the pre-NIL and Transfer Portal era of college basketball, so a lot has changed. We also have the COVID-19 season in 2019-20 that was postponed. Back in 2014, Wisconsin made the Final Four and then was the runner-up to Duke in the 2015 National Championship Game. In that same span, Kentucky lost to UConn in the National title game and then advanced to the 2015 Final Four.
We all remember those Butler teams with Gordan Hayward and Matt Howard that made the National Championship Game in back-to-back seasons, losing to Duke and UConn in 2010 and 2011, respectively. North Carolina made the Final Four in 2008 but lost before winning it all in 2009. Which brings us to 2006 and 2007, the last time a team repeated as National Champions.
It was the Florida Gators, then led by head coach Billy Donovan. The Gators are the last team to go back-to-back, anchored by one of the best college frontcourts of all-time — Joakim Noah and Al Horford.
In the 2005-06 season, the No. 3 seed Gators would go on to beat the UCLA Bruins in the National Championship. That UCLA team was led by Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Jordan Farmar. That Florida team also had Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey. In 2006, Florida really wasn’t challenged until the Sweet 16 vs. Georgetown. They’d go on to defeat No. 1 Villanova in the Elite Eight and an 11-seed Cinderella in George Mason to reach the title game.
In 2006-07, Florida returned the exact same core of Noah, Horford, Brewer, Green and Humphrey. As a No. 1 seed, the Gators basically marched all the way to the Final Four. This time, they’d face an even tougher UCLA team in the National Semifinal. Farmar would leave for the NBA, but was replaced in the starting lineup by Darren Collison. Luc Mbah a Moute also played a bigger role in the 06-07 Bruins squad. Plus, Afflalo and Shipp returned. But it still wasn’t enough to get by the Gators, who won 76-66.
Florida would head to the National Championship Game for a second straight season, set to face Greg Oden, Mike Conley and the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes. The Gators weren’t fazed and would repeat as champions after a 84-75 win over the Buckeyes. Billy Donovan would hang around for a while before bolting to coach Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Joakim Noah and Al Horford went on to have successful NBA careers. But all three will always be remembered for what they did for Gators basketball.
If we go further back, it was much more common in the 2000’s and ‘90s for teams to make multiple deep NCAA Tournament runs. The Kentucky teams of the late ‘90s would win two of three times, while advancing to the Final Four in each season from 1996 to 1998. Michigan State, Maryland, North Carolina and Duke were among the usual suspects in that period to get to the Final Four consistently.
Before Florida in 2006 and 2007, it was Duke that was the last team to repeat as champions in 1991 and 1992. Those were the Grant Hill and Christian Laettner led Blue Devils teams with Coach K. Bobby Hurley, brother of UConn head coach Danny Hurley, was apart of those Duke teams to go back-to-back.
Going even further back, we have to go to the late ‘60s and early ‘70s UCLA dynasty led mostly by Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton and head coach John Wooden. The Bruins dominance would last from 1964 to 1975, a run where the team won 10 of 12 National Championships.
