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2026 NCAA Men’s Tournament: Last Time Final Four Teams Made National Championship

On the fourth day of the fourth month of the year, we’re down to four teams in the 2026 NCAA Men’s Tournament. No. 2 seed UConn will face off against No. 3 seed Illinois in the Final Four on Saturday night, while a pair of No. 1 seeds go up against each other when Arizona meets Michigan. Here’s the last time each of the four teams that reached this year’s Final Four played in a national championship. Note: Schools are mentioned in alphabetical order. Arizona – 2001 Following consecutive seasons of being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the opening weekend, the Wildcats went on a run to the national title in 2001. Among its best wins in the 2001 tournament, No. 2 seed Arizona took down No. 1 seed Illinois, Michigan State — in an 80-61 victory over the then-defending champions — and No. 3 seed Ole Miss en route to reaching the title game. Led by future three-time All-NBA honoree All-Star Gilbert Arenas, Michael Wright and Richard Jefferson, among others, the Wildcats reached their second title game in five years (they were also in the 1997 national championship). That said, Jay Williams, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer and No. 1 seed Duke bested Arizona in the championship game. Illinois – 2005 Illinois was a force to be reckoned with in the 2004-05 season. Losing just one game in the regular season, the Fighting Illini won both the Big Ten regular-season title and the Big Ten Tournament. After No. 1 seed Illinois played a trio of contested games in the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament, future NBA star Deron Williams, Luther Head, Dee Brown & Co. proceeded to get a one-point overtime victory over No. 3 seed Arizona in the Elite Eight and beat No. 4 seed Louisville with conviction in the Final Four. Top-seeded North Carolina was the end of the road for Illinois. The 2004-05 season marks the only time that the Illini have reached the title game. Michigan – 2018 Michigan earned a No. 3 seed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and ultimately made its second national championship appearance in six years (it made the 2013 national title game). The Wolverines defeated No. 14 seed Montana, No. 6 seed Houston, No. 7 seed Texas A&M, No. 9 seed Florida State and surging No. 11 seed Loyola to reach the national championship. Moritz Wagner, Charles Matthews and Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman led the way for Michigan, which also had future NBA starters Jordan Poole and Duncan Robinson, among other pro players, on the roster. But Jay Wright’s Villanova squad — which featured future NBA star Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo — at the height of their reign awaited Michigan and got the best of the Wolverines in the championship game. UConn – 2024 After winning the 2023 national title, UConn put together an even better campaign in the 2023-24 season. Losing just three games in the regular season, the Huskies won both the Big East regular-season title and the Big East Tournament — and then they annihilated the competition in the NCAA Tournament. Among its more impressive tournament victories, top-seeded UConn beat No. 5 seed San Diego State — who the Huskies beat in the 2023 title game — in the Sweet 16 (82-52), No. 3 seed Illinois in the Elite Eight (77-52), No. 4 seed Alabama in the Final Four (86-72) and No. 1 seed  Purdue in the championship (75-60). UConn beat its six tournament opponents by an average of 23.3 points per game. The Huskies went on to have two players selected within the top 10 picks of the 2024 NBA Draft (Stephon Castle at No. 4 and Donovan Clingan at No. 7) and four players selected altogether (Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer were selected in the second round).​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

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Christina Marie Plante, Vanished at 13, Found ALIVE 32 Years Later

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Christina Marie Plante went missing when she was only 13.

Some would say that being found alive even weeks later is a “miracle.”

At the very least, it would be a statistical outlier.

Finding a missing child alive over three decades later is a singular event. And it’s cause for celebration.

Christina Marie Plante in the early 1990s.
In 1994, Christina Marie Plante vanished. (Photo Credit: Gila County Sheriff’s Office)

Missing for 3 hours is scary. Missing for 30 years usually only means one thing

On May 15, 1994, Plante was only 13 years old.

She left her Payson, Arizona home to walk to a nearby stable. (The community of Star Valley exists there now, but was incorporated over a decade after her disappearance.)

Her horse was housed at that stable.

However, she vanished somewhere along the way.

For more than 30 years, she has been a missing person.

At the time, authorities classified her disappearance as “endangered and under suspicious circumstances.”

Barely a teenager, she had vanished.

Law enforcement and volunteers searched for any sign of her.

In some cases, missing persons are simply injured and unable to move. In 1994, essentially no teenager would have had a cell phone.

However, eventually, her case went cold. There were no leads. She became part of national missing children databases, and many assumed that she had died.

A Gila County Sheriff's Office announcement on Christina Marie Plante.
The Gila County Sheriff’s Office shared this news on social media. (Image Credit: Gila County Sheriff’s Office)

She has been found alive

On Wednesday, April 1, the Gila County Sheriff’s office made a stunning announcement.

They shared that there had been a “successful” resolution to Plante’s case after 32 years.

At this point, most would expect the arrest of some depraved killer and the location of a young teen’s remains, buried for decades in some dark place.

Instead, she had been found alive.

Police vaguely shared that advances in technology and in investigative techniques had led to her discovery.

“Investigators have confirmed her identity, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved,” the Gila County Sheriff’s Office announced.

They credited cold case initiatives for “bringing long-awaited answers to families and communities.”

However, the details on Plante’s life since her disappearance stop there.

“Out of respect for Christina’s privacy and well-being,” the sheriff’s office explained, “additional details will not be released at this time.”

Understandably, she is now an adult woman of 44 or 45 years. She doesn’t want a media circus.

A screenshot from the news of Star Valley.
Star Valley did not exist at the time of her disappearance. (Image Credit: News 12)

Why are they only finding her now?

Reading between the lines, it does appear that the unsaid truth may be that Plante staged her own disappearance.

We can only imagine what factors may have led to her wanting to leave her home as a child, and what difficulties she may have faced after that.

Many people are aware that most — but not all — runaways have extremely good reasons for leaving home. There are also times when they are manipulated into leaving home, and fear returning out of shame.

We don’t have to know what Plante went through, before or after she vanished. That is her business.

However, we are sorry for any hardships that she has experienced. And we are, of course, glad that she is alive.

Christina Marie Plante, Vanished at 13, Found ALIVE 32 Years Later was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

​The Hollywood Gossip

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