Men's Final Four 2024: Storylines, picks, predictions

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Members of one of the most unlikely quartets in recent college basketball history will fight to win a national championship in the days ahead.

Sure, most of the sports world expected UConn to return to this stage a year after a national title run, even though some of the stars from that team are gone. But Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and Tristen Newton are also up against history: there hasn't been a back-to-back champion in 17 years, and the past five national champions didn't even get past the first weekend.

NC State wasn't even in the projected field when the conference tournaments began. DJ Burns Jr. and Co. had to win the ACC tournament and mimic…