I think it’s safe to say that March Madness 2010 has changed the way that fans will evaluate their brackets moving forward. Teams like St. Mary’s and Northern Iowa came from no where to shock the world and a few number one ranked teams in the process.

What doesn’t come as a surprise are the four teams that reached the Final Four. No, I did not select these four teams to be here come April, but I wasn’t surprised to see that it was these teams left. Below is a breakdown of each team; how they got here and what it’ll take to win it all.

Duke Blue Devils

How they got here:

Duke is Duke. Coach K is Coach K. Year after year, the Blue Devils are favorites to make it this far, but this year they actually succeeded. Duke’s big three has put the team on their backs and haven’t looked back. Reaching the Final Four on an eight game win streak, this team is no stranger to the Final Four making it for the 11th time under Coach K. Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith are all averaging over 17 points and Brian Zoubek has an impressive 7.6 rebounds per game. Duke beat impressive California, Purdue and Baylor squads on their road to Indy.

Why they’ll win it:

Determination. This team is driven. Other than being Las Vegas’ betting favorite, this team can play. Zoubek and Scheyer are Seniors; Singular and Smith both know that this is their chance to win it all. Squaring up against West Virginia in their Final Four match-up, the Blue Devils outscore the Mountaineers by five ppg and hold opponents to two less points. Aside from the numbers, they have Coach K drawing up their plays. His legendary experience will be enough to fire up his team and get them ready to play the biggest games of their lives.

West Virginia Mountaineers

How they got here:

While Cornell was making Kentucky’s job easier on the upper half of their tier, West Virginia was busy taking down such powers as Missouri, Washington and Kentucky. Kentucky itself was a huge victory for Bob Huggins, who is now 8-1 versus John Calipari all time, but Washington was overlooked being an 11 seed reaching the Sweet Sixteen. Da’Sean Butler has been averaging 17.3 ppg this tournament and this includes his nine points in his 28 minutes played against Morgan State in the opening round. Oh, I guess winning their last 10 including a Big East Championship puts them on a roll too.

Why they’ll win it:

Even though they were a number two seed in their region, no one thought they had a chance. This is especially true because Kentucky was most of America’s favorite to win it all. Winning 73-66, West Virginia led the entire game against what was thought to be the nation’s best team. Their experience also may have something to do with it because in their victory over Kentucky four Mountaineers were in double-digits. Their 43.5% shooting from beyond the arc will be a key to beating Duke who mixes between a zone and tough man.

Michigan State Spartans

How they got here:

After the fall of Kalin Lucas, no one expected this squad to make it past Northern Iowa let alone Tennessee. However, Korie Lucious has stepped in to fill Lucas’ roll and he has done so accordingly. Raymar Morgan has emerged as this teams on-court captain. Even though their game with Tennessee came down to an iffy call in the final two seconds, Michigan State’s coach Tom Izzo is no stranger to the Final Four with six life-time trips putting him 5th all time. Also, this is the teams second trip in the last two years. I’d say this team is hot.

Why they’ll win it:

If it was up to me, I’d say Michigan State is least likely to win it all because of the downing of Kalin Lucas. Then again, millions have been saying this for the past two games. Butler better prepare for the high-flying, shoot-anywhere-on-the-court antics of Lucious because he will kill you with the three ball if you let him. Plus, if Kansas was selected most to win it all in most all brackets filled, that should say something about the team from the region that emerged instead. Don’t count out the Spartans come April 5th at 9:21 p.m.

Butler Bulldogs

How they got here:

I wrote an article about this team almost a month ago saying that they are the country’s hottest team heading down the stretch. Winning their last 18 games of the season and the Horizon League easily, Butler has been putting their game where everyone else’s mouth is. Now winners of their last 25, Butler doesn’t plan on stopping because they are viewed as college basketball’s Boise State. Only difference, they actually get a shot at the National Championship come Sunday.

Why they’ll win it:

Like I recently said, they are winners in their last 25 games and that counts as something. A young team with experience, Butler has blown everyone out on their road to Indianapolis including a seven-point victory over Kansas State to reach the Final Four. Butler has the lowest points-against-average this season with an impressive 59.4 ppg. Also, Butler has the nation’s least amount of losses title with four. This team knows how to win big games and with four members of their team averaging over double-digits, there is no ‘I’ in Butler (or Bulldogs for that matter).

Now that you have seen the reasons that these are the four teams left, are you still happy with your bracket down the stretch?

The first few weeks of the college basketball season have come and gone and a lot has been learned from watching these games. Check it out:

1.) The University of North Carolina (12-7) isn’t worthy of even being mentioned for the national championship. You would imagine that a team would want to defend their national championship, right? Not in UNC’s case. Losing their last three games, and four of their last five, The Tar heels have done one thing well all season: turn the ball over (a lot).

2.) Games have been much closer than they should be. St. Johns (12-7) last night had a lead going into half-time against Villanova (18-1). Nova rightfully thwarted St. John’s in the second half, but why was it even this close to begin with? Number-five Syracuse (19-1) squeezed out a tight one with a Marquette (11-8) team who has looked less than stellar all year. This next one is probably my favorite. Michigan State (17-3) beats Minnesota (12-7) by a free-throw. Yes, giving credit where credit is due, State was losing by eight at half-time and managed to rally back. Although these close games make for great television, it makes me wonder if true dominance has left the game.

3.) Being King-of-the-Hill is hard. Ten weeks into the season, we’ve had two different number-one ranked teams and it’ll be three on Monday morning. Kansas (18-1) road the momentum longest spending a solid eight weeks on top, but their loss to Tennessee (15-3) sent them down two spots and out the target on Texas’ (17-2) back. They didn’t fair as well as Kansas losing their number-one ranking after just two weeks. A few hours from now Kentucky (19-0), the sole undefeated team, will get their first shot at sitting on the throne.

4.) The ACC as a whole hasn’t been up to its normal excellence. Last week I wrote an article about each team from the ACC and within that week, the situation has become more interesting. If I told you that Maryland (13-5) was on top of the ACC and that UNC was second from the bottom, I wouldn’t believe me either. Maybe it’s more mind blowing that the Cavaliers of Virginia (12-5) have beaten a Georgia Tech (14-4) team that has steamrolled the likes of Duke (16-3) and Clemson (15-5) this season. What was thought to be a typical UNC-Duke year has become more atypical then years passed.

5.) The most important thing we’ve learned from this season: There’s a reason we play the game.

Despite everything that we have learned from this season, questions are still being raised. Will UNC get back to contending form? Will the top-25 ever look relatively similar again two weeks in a row? But what I’m still trying to figure out is the following:

Why hasn’t Kentucky been the number one seed yet?

I’ll start by defending the rankings. There was multiple undefeated teams like Texas, Kansas, Syracuse and Villanova. There was also many strong one loss teams like Michigan State, Tennessee and Duke. Also, maybe playing in the SEC isn’t the best conference to play for, but when a team has a “W19″ in their current streak column, it means something.

Now I’ll talk about why the Cats should have been placed on top since the season’s beginning. Kentucky has the best player in the nation in John Wall taking the ball up court. What makes this team special is that Wall also averages 6.7 assists per game. Forward DeMarcus Cousins averages a smooth 15.4 ppg and 9.5 rebounds. Eric Bledsoe and Patrick Patterson make it four Wildcats with an average of 10 points or more. The Wildcats make it almost impossible to stop them averaging 83.2 ppg. More impressive is the mere 65.6 points against per game. That has to be intimidating walking into Rupp Arena knowing that in 19 games, the Wildcats have won by a 17.6 points average. However, all the great game planning requires great coaching.

John Calipari is truly defining himself as the best active coach in college basketball. He has a 416-137 overall record and after all the doubt about not being able to coach outside Conference USA, he’s just led the Wildcats to the number one spot overall in 2010. Yes, his NBA stint with the New Jersey Nets was as bad as dropping a full carton of eggs, but this guy knows how to motivate young players. Derreck Rose, Tyreke Evans and now John Wall are three “one-and-done” players to have been coached by Calipari and unlikely than any other situation, they play with pride for the one season. The one thing that I love about Calipari is that his team never plays to the level of their opponent. When they’re supposed to win big, they beat Hartford (5-15) by 43. When faced with SEC rival Arkansas (8-1), Kentucky made it look like a close game winning by 31.

It’s those big games that define a team as the number-one overall. They won 64-61 over a hot UCONN (13-6) team and going into The Swamp to play the Florida Gators (14-5) and going home a 12 point winner is rather defining. This team can flat out play. If you’re still not convinced that the Kentucky Wildcats should be number one, you should probably re-evaluate the way you watch the game.

If I were asked, I’d say their best chance to lose the rest of the season is February 27th when they travel to Knoxville to take on Tennessee. Who knows, maybe a week earlier on February 20th, the Vanderbilt Commodores (15-3) can surprise the Cats in Nashville. But like I just said:

It’s only a chance.