March Madness usually follows a script. You have the blue bloods—the Dukies and Kentuckys of the world—cruising into the second weekend while some scrappy mid-major captures our hearts for exactly forty-eight hours before reality sets in.
But 2023 was different. Kinda weird, honestly.
If you're asking who won 2023 March Madness, the short answer is the UConn Huskies for the men and the LSU Tigers for the women. But that doesn't even come close to covering the absolute chaos that happened on the hardwood that spring. We saw a 16-seed take down a 1-seed for only the second time ever. We saw a Final Four without a single top-three seed. It was a year where the record books didn't just get updated; they got shredded.
UConn's Total Erasure of the Competition
Let's talk about the UConn Huskies. Usually, when a 4-seed wins the national title, we talk about "surviving and advancing" or getting lucky with a whistle. UConn didn't survive. They steamrolled.
Dan Hurley’s squad didn't just win their games; they ended them by halftime. They became the first team in the history of the modern tournament to win all six games by 13 points or more. Think about that for a second. In a tournament defined by buzzer-beaters and heart-stopping finishes, UConn was essentially playing a different sport.
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The championship game in Houston was a defensive masterclass. They faced San Diego State, a team known for a "grind-you-into-dust" style of play. For a minute there, it looked like the Aztecs might make it a game, cutting a double-digit lead down to five in the second half. Then Jordan Hawkins hit a dagger three, Adama Sanogo dominated the paint, and the Huskies pulled away for a 76-59 victory.
Sanogo was the heartbeat of that team. He ended up with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the final, rightfully earning the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honors. It was UConn’s fifth national title since 1999. To put that in perspective, no other program has won more than three in that same span. They aren't just a basketball school; they're a factory for trophies.
LSU and the Caitlin Clark Phenomenon
On the women’s side, the story was just as loud, maybe even louder. If UConn was a clinic in dominance, the women’s final between LSU and Iowa was a heavyweight prize fight.
LSU won their first-ever national championship by putting up 102 points on Iowa. 102! That is the most points ever scored in a women’s title game. Kim Mulkey, in only her second year at Baton Rouge, became the first coach to win titles at two different schools.
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But you can't talk about who won 2023 March Madness without talking about the stars. Angel Reese, the "Bayou Barbie," was a double-double machine. She put up 15 points and 10 rebounds in the final, but her impact was more about the energy and the unapologetic swagger she brought to the floor.
On the other side was Caitlin Clark. Even in a losing effort, Clark was transcendent. She scored 30 points in the final and set the record for the most points ever scored in a single NCAA tournament (191). The back-and-forth between her and Reese became the focal point of sports talk for weeks, sparking conversations about trash talk, respect, and the massive growth of women's basketball.
The Madness That Didn't Make the Final
While UConn and LSU took home the hardware, the 2023 tournament will always be remembered for the carnage in the early rounds.
Basically, the brackets were on fire by Friday afternoon.
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Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU) provided the "where were you" moment of the year. They were the shortest team in the tournament, a 16-seed that had to win a First Four game just to get in. They went up against Purdue and their 7-foot-4 superstar Zach Edey. FDU shouldn't have been on the same court. Instead, they swarmed Edey, hit timely shots, and pulled off a 63-58 upset that left the sports world staring at their TVs in disbelief.
Then you had Florida Atlantic (FAU). A school most people probably couldn't find on a map before March. They didn't just win a game; they went on a tear all the way to the Final Four. They were a bounce away from playing for a national title before San Diego State’s Lamont Butler hit a buzzer-beater in the semifinals that felt like a movie script.
Why 2023 Still Matters
We look back at 2023 as a turning point. It was the year the "mid-major" label started to feel outdated. When teams like San Diego State, FAU, and Miami make the Final Four, it proves that the gap between the elite and the rest of the field has closed significantly.
It also changed the trajectory of women's sports. The LSU-Iowa final drew 9.9 million viewers. People weren't just watching because it was on; they were watching because the product was elite. The rivalry between Reese and Clark pushed the game into the mainstream in a way we hadn't seen since the Pat Summitt vs. Geno Auriemma days.
Key Stats to Remember:
- Men's Final Score: UConn 76, San Diego State 59.
- Women's Final Score: LSU 102, Iowa 85.
- UConn's Margin: They won every tournament game by at least 13 points.
- LSU's Record: They were the first team to score 100+ points in a women’s final.
If you're looking to dive deeper into college basketball history, your next step should be checking out the 2024 results to see how UConn managed to go back-to-back, a feat that had seemed impossible in the modern era until Dan Hurley’s group proved otherwise. You can also look into the transfer portal stats from that year, as both LSU and UConn used key transfers to build their championship rosters.
Next Steps for Fans:
- Compare the 2023 UConn run with their 2024 championship to see which team was statistically more dominant.
- Research the 2023 WNBA and NBA Draft results to see where stars like Jordan Hawkins and Angel Reese ended up.
- Watch the full replay of the FDU vs. Purdue game if you ever need a reminder that anything is possible in March.