March Madness 2014: Analyzing Most Compelling NCAA Final Four Storylines

Less than a handful of teams remain in the 2014 NCAA tournament, as the madness of March shifts to Arlington in this Saturday's Final Four.

With the parity that's been demonstrated throughout the tournament and the multitude of upsets that have occurred, a quartet of reputed powerhouses is still standing. The Florida Gators entered the tourney as the No. 1 overall seed and have lived up to that billing by all accounts, but can they keep their run going?

The last squad to beat the Gators was the Connecticut Huskies, a No. 7 seed who has risen from the East Region to meet Florida in the national semifinals.

Beyond that rematch, another intriguing battle between the second-seeded Wisconsin Badgers and the Midwest's No. 8 Kentucky looms. The Wildcats fell short of expectations all season before flipping a suppressed switch for the Big Dance, and have shown how electric they can be despite their limited experience.

Below is a closer examination of the biggest storylines ahead of Saturday's showdowns, preceded by updated bracket information.

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Can Florida Continue Dominance as Front-Runner Favorite?

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Four games, four double-digit triumphs for the Gators in the NCAA tourney so far. That also makes it 30 straight wins for Florida, which heightens the pressure to a degree to finish the job with a national title.

Head coach Billy Donovan is no stranger to the pressure of fielding a team with the biggest bull's-eye on its back. He guided the Gators to back-to-back championships and was the last such coach to pull that off.

The previous three years have resulted in Elite Eight losses, so Florida's four seniors—Scottie Wilbekin, Patric Young, Casey Prather and Will Yeguete—had to feel relief more than anything in advancing past No. 11 Dayton this past weekend.

There should be no doubting how legitimate the Flyers were, as they had 11 players score in their Sweet 16 win over Stanford, showing off impressive depth. But even their best efforts for the majority of the first half versus Florida saw them trail 38-24 at the break—an ultimately insurmountable deficit.

Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports noted the standout play of Wilbekin in that contest, along with how the Gators can run up the score in a hurry:

KenPom.com rates Florida as the No. 1 team in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency, which promises to give UConn problems in the Final Four. The primary source of the Huskies' half-court offense comes from whatever Shabazz Napier can create on his own. That's not a great recipe for success against the Gators.

That said, Connecticut was the last team to knock off Florida on a wild buzzer-beater from Napier, so the Huskies have played spoiler before. With the heightened stakes and the previous defeat in the back of their minds, the Gators will have to hold it together and focus on the ultimate goal under increased scrutiny and a brighter spotlight.

Cinderella Success for Premier Programs

Peter Morgan

So the Huskies, despite their massive national profile in college basketball, are playing with the least to lose among the four teams.

That may be hard to believe, considering Kevin Ollie's stupendous job in his first NCAA tournament succeeding Jim Calhoun. Ollie has groomed Napier, DeAndre Daniels and other critical contributors at UConn's core to forge together a Final Four team with defensive tenacity.

SI.com's Pete Thamel highlighted one of the unique tactics Ollie has deployed to get his player to buy in:

So while the Huskies are no small story, their status as the nothing-to-lose team fits in the context of the other big storylines.

Namely the Kentucky Wildcats. The preseason No. 1-ranked team didn't live up to the hype, despite fielding perhaps the best freshman class of all time. These blue-chip players couldn't deliver for Big Blue Nation, leading to dejection and overall disappointment.

Now those struggles seem worth it. Following a one-point loss to the Gators in the SEC tournament final, Kentucky's youngsters didn't hang their heads and count themselves out despite drawing the most difficult region of all in the Midwest.

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Instead, Julius Randle continued his dominance, twin guards Aaron and Andrew Harrison rose to the occasion and James Young began knocking down clutch three-pointers at a stunning rate. That explosion of brilliance has suddenly landed the Wildcats in the Final Four.

Getting past such quality opponents to get to Arlington is an achievement in and of itself, but Kentucky seems poised for more. Despite their status as an eighth seed, the Wildcats are favored by two points over Wisconsin, per VegasInsider.com.

For a bunch of players who seemed incapable of taking on complementary roles and preferred to be alpha dogs like they were in high school, Kentucky has shown a ton of collective heart this March.

Head coach John Calipari has engineered one of the most sudden turnarounds in recent memory, finally getting the Wildcats to realize their immense potential. Calipari expressed pride in how well his bunch has stuck together this season, per WKYT.com's Dick Gabriel:

"

They have been through so much. They have been attacked, they have been bludgeoned, ‘They can't play, they're not a team, you can't do it this way.' But they stayed together. It makes you strong. It makes you tough as nails. And we just hung around.

"

That synergy and the winning, resultant production in the NCAA tourney may result in Calipari losing most or all of his freshman standouts for next season.

For now, though, he can focus on readying Kentucky's diaper dandies—to borrow from ESPN's Dick Vitale—to raise another banner to the Rupp Arena rafters.

Bo Ryan Gets to Know the Final Four

Harry How/Getty Images

The grit to fight through a reputedly tough Big Ten schedule and reach the NCAA tournament is something Badgers coach Bo Ryan is familiar with. This marks the 13th consecutive time Ryan has guided Wisconsin to the Big Dance.

However, until the Badgers toughed out an overtime thriller to win the West over No. 1 seed Arizona in the Elite Eight, Ryan had never known what a trip to the national semifinals was like.

Thanks largely to the large, seven-foot star in junior Frank Kaminsky, the veteran coach will finally become acquainted with college basketball's biggest stage.

Getting over that hurdle serves as some consolation if the Badgers fall short to Kentucky on Saturday, but don't expect them to go quietly.

A big difference between this Wisconsin crew and the teams of years past is that it can score in transition with more proficiency and has five starters all capable of draining shots from three-point range.

Despite the different makeup—not to mention the unprecedented appearance for Ryan at this juncture of the tournament—the approach Ryan is taking won't change, per BadgerNation.com's  Benjamin Worgull:

Treating every game as its own task at hand can backfire at times, but it's served Wisconsin well amid trying times this season.

CBS Sports' Doug Gottlieb pointed out a unique element to this year's Badgers, suggesting they're built to battle adversity even better than usual:

The characteristic half-court execution that Ryan's squads are built on is still there on both ends of the floor, but the Badgers have the personnel to match up with a flashier Wildcats team in addition to more methodical foes.

Kaminsky and his teammates will determine who comes out on top versus Kentucky, yet the big story will be how Ryan fares in his first Final Four foray against his capable counterpart in Calipari.

Ryan has nourished a culture in Madison of developing players and encouraging them to stay in school. That's far from Calipari's philosophy, which is centered on a win-now mentality and a rebuilding process as many of his key contributors flee Lexington for the NBA draft after one year.

That clash of paradigms has been on display in Kentucky's previous three wins over Wichita State, Louisville and Michigan—all of whom had a lot of returning starters from their 2013 Final Four rosters.

So far it's gone the Wildcats' way. If anyone has the defensive chops and a player who can throw Randle off his rhythm, move no further than Wisconsin. It should be a matchup for the ages, but regardless of the outcome, Ryan has gotten a big weight lifted after missing out on the Final Four on 12 prior occasions.