North Carolina, Kansas Secure Spots in 2022 Men's NCAA Tournament Final to Conclude March Madness

The 2022 NCAA championship game will air on Monday, April 4

UNC and Kansas Secure Spots in 2022 Men's NCAA Tournament Final to Conclude March Madness
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty; Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty

Two teams have emerged victorious after the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four games this weekend.

North Carolina and Kansas will compete in the March Madness final this coming week, having both secured their spots after winning games on Saturday evening.

Kansas beat Villanova in the first game of the night, winning 81-65, as UNC and Duke battled it out in another, with North Carolina scoring a victory of 81-77.

After losing to the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Head Coach Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski reflected on the loss in a post-game press conference.

"First of all, congratulations to North Carolina, " Krzyzewski said, per NPR. "It was a game that the winner was going to be joyous and the loser was going to be in agony. And that's the type of game we expected. We would have liked to have been on the other side of it, but I'm proud of what our guys have done."

North Carolina Tar Heels players react after defeating the Duke Blue Devils 81-77 in the second half of the game during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal at Caesars Superdome on April 02, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Chris Graythen/Getty

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Heading into the Final Four, all the teams had a historic track record of March Madness success.

North Carolina had made it to the Final Four a total of 21 times, the most by any school in college basketball history. UNC has previously been the tournament champions six times, most recently in 2017.

David McCormack #33 of the Kansas Jayhawks dunks the ball against the Villanova Wildcats during the second half in the semifinal game of the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four at Caesars Superdome on April 02, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty

Duke followed just behind their in-state rivals, with 17 Final Four appearances and five overall tournament wins. Thirteen of those Final Four appearances came under Krzyzewski, who has been at the school since 1980 and is retiring at the end of the year.

Both Kansas and Villanova each have three men's tournament wins, with Kansas last topping the teams in 2008 and Villanova, 10 years later in 2018.

AJ Griffin #21 of the Duke Blue Devils and Brady Manek #45 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reach for the ball in the second half of the game during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal at Caesars Superdome on April 02, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Tom Pennington/Getty

Meanwhile, in the Women's bracket, South Carolina topped Louisville 72-59 and Connecticut beat Stanford 63-58 to reach the finals. Their game will air Sunday night.

The 2022 Men's NCAA championship will then air Monday on TBS in the U.S., and on TSN in Canada.

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