The 2015 Final Four seemed to herald the ascendancy of teams built around elite, one-and-done talent in men’s college basketball.
Kentucky, the program then most associated with one-year college players, arrived in Indianapolis two victories away from an undefeated 2015 national championship. The Wildcats had four freshmen — three of whom would go on to be one-and-done players — among their core players.
Meanwhile, Duke made it to Indy with three star freshmen, all soon to be one-and-dones, in its starting lineup.
The 2015 Final Four ended with Duke cutting down the nets after Kentucky suffered a heart-wrenching, come-from-ahead loss to Wisconsin in the national semifinals.