The Spartans enter the 2000 Final Four as the clear favorite, a No. 1 seed with star power. The rest of the field is an odd collection of gritty underdogs (eighth-seed Wisconsin), previous underachievers (eighth-seed North Carolina) and confident young guns (fifth-seed Florida).

But in the past 40 years, some of the biggest favorites turned into the biggest disappointments. Here's a look at eight Final Four teams that were expected to bring home the trophy, but went home empty handed.

More than just a national title, the Blue Devils were playing for a spot in history as one of the greatest teams ever; a win in the championship game would give them 38 victories, the most ever in a season. They had a championship-caliber coach (Mike Krzyzewski), four players who would be taken in the first-round of the 1999 NBA draft, an excellent defense, momentum ... you name it, they had it.

What went wrong: Shooting percentages

In five previous tournament games, Duke allowed opponents to shoot a mere 36 percent. But led by Richard Hamilton (27 points), UConn drained more than half its shots (32 of 61) while holding the Blue Devils to a season-low 41 percent (23 of 56). And the Huskies were simply better in the clutch. Point guard Khalid El-Amin hit a floater in the final minute and nailed two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to give UConn a 77-74 lead ... and Duke's Trajan Langdon was stripped of the ball while trying to set up for a tying 3-pointer.

The unlikely champion: Connecticut

UConn was a quality team all season, with only two losses and stars like slick forward Richard Hamilton and portly point guard Khalid El-Amin. The Huskies, the only team other than Duke to hold the No. 1 ranking during the season, weren't a fluke ... but at nearly a 10-point underdog in the final, they were still an improbable winner.

Loving every bit of their bad-boy image, the Runnin' Rebels didn't just beat opponents, they pushed them around, intimidated them, and, ultimately, ran them off the court. The last team to take a perfect record into the Final Four, UNLV was 30-0 before NCAA Tournament play, whipping teams by an average of 26.7 points and busting through the 100-point barrier 14 times.

They were the defending national champs, loaded with talent. Larry Johnson would be the No. 1 pick in the 1991 draft, followed closely by Stacey Augmon (No. 9) and Greg Anthony (No. 12) -- plus the Rebels had the 1990 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, Anderson Hunt.

What went wrong: Revenge

A year earlier, UNLV had flattened Duke in the final, winning by the largest championship-game margin ever -- 103-73. But when the teams met again in a 1991 semifinal, the Blue Devils refused to be intimidated. The game was close throughout -- 17 ties, 25 lead changes -- and the winning points came with 12.7 seconds left on Christian Laettner's two free throws. UNLV had a chance to win, but Hunt's last-second 3-point shot clanged off the rim, leaving Duke with a 79-77 victory.

The unlikely champion: Duke

Duke had been a worthy team in the regular season, going 26-7 and ranking sixth in the final AP poll, but everybody was seemingly playing for second place behind UNLV. After toppling the Rebels, Duke dispatched Kansas in the title game, giving Mike Krzyzewski his first national title in five trips to the Final Four. The Blue Devils -- not UNLV -- wound up as repeat champs, winning again in 1992.

The Sooners frustrated teams all season with their unrelenting full-court press and coach Billy Tubbs' run-and-gun style. Mookie Blaylock ran the show, but was far from the whole show. He had help in the backcourt from Ricky Grace, had frontcourt muscle in Stacey King and Harvey Grant, and could pass off to long-ranger bomber Dave Sieger.

What went wrong: Danny and the Miracles

Oklahoma survived a Final Four game with Arizona and everything would have been just fine for the Sooners ... except for Danny Manning and sixth-seeded Kansas. After a frenetic pace resulted in a 50-50 halftime score, Kansas slowed the tempo in the second half and Oklahoma obliged, calling off the press because its guards were in foul trouble.

Behind Manning, Kansas got the lead with seven minutes to go and wouldn't trail again. When he went to the line with five seconds left, the Jayhawks up by two, Manning, as he would say later, had one thought in his mind: "It's over." It was. He made both free throws to clinch the 83-79 victory.

The unlikely champion: Kansas

Manning gets all the credit, and why not? He had 31 points, 18 rebounds and five steals in the championship game. The rest of the crew also upped its game when it mattered most -- notably point guard Jeff Pritchard, who broke the Oklahoma press. Kansas is still the lowest seed (six) to win the title since 1985.

The Hoyas were basically the same Big East bullies they had been a year earlier, when they beat Houston in the NCAA Championship game. They still had a terrific supporting cast around the dominator -- center Patrick Ewing -- and played the nation's toughest defense, allowing teams to shoot only 39.9 percent.

Georgetown ended the regular season with a 30-2 record, ranked No. 1.

What went wrong: Timing

The 45-second shot clock had been used during the Big East regular season, but not in the NCAA Tournament, allowing a slow-it-down underdog like Villanova to pester opponents with its patience.

In the all-Big East title game, the eighth-seeded Wildcats fended off the Hoyas' hounding pressure, then lulled Georgetown into defensive lapses with their perimeter passing. Villanova took only 28 shots against the nation's best defense ... but made 22. Rollie Massimino's team also made 22 of 27 free-throw attempts, and needed almost every one of those points in the 66-64 victory.

The unlikely champion: Villanova

Villanova ended the regular season with a 19-10 record, just 9-7 in the Big East, including two losses to Georgetown. But the eighth-seeded Wildcats' slow-down game and matchup zone defense made for a great combination in the NCAA Tournament. They're still the lowest-seeded team ever to win the tournament.

These were the Phi Slamma Jamma Cougars, an entertaining team that turned mere basketball into daring dunkfests. Led by All-Americans Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, other key players in the fraternity were Michael Young, Larry Micheaux and Alvin Franklin.

Top-ranked Houston entered the tournament 27-2, coming off an undefeated conference season. When the Cougars rallied to defeat second-ranked Louisville in the all-time dunkathon of a national semifinal -- led by Olajuwon, who had 15 rebounds, 13 points and four blocks in the second half -- the NCAA title was all but theirs.

What went wrong: Destiny

Houston crashed into a wave of momentum from one of the tournament's all-time most lovable underdogs -- Jim Valvano's sixth-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack. N.C. State wanted to control the pace and keep the score in the 50s, not the 80s or 90s as Houston would have preferred. And that's what Valvano's group did. Drexler, Young and Micheaux usually combined to score 47 points per game; they mustered a mere 14 in the title game.

The Wolfpack won in extraordinary fashion, as Lorenzo Charles grabbed Dereck Whittenburg's desperation 30-footer and stuffed it home at the buzzer ... beating Phi Slamma Jamma with a dunk.

The unlikely champion: N.C. State

N.C. State, which had 10 losses in the regular season, barely survived a first-round game, needing two overtimes to subdue Pepperdine (after trailing by six and Pepperdine at the line with 24 seconds to go in the first overtime). The Wolfpack won two of their next four games by one point to improbably reach the final.

There was no end in sight for the dynasty. The Bruins had won seven consecutive national championships and nine of the previous 10. They had the best big man around -- Bill Walton. They had John Wooden on the sideline. They had mystique. They were UCLA ... they were college basketball.

What went wrong: Law of averages

They had to lose sometime. Notre Dame overcame a late-game 11-point deficit in January to end UCLA's 88-game winning streak, and the Bruins later lost at Oregon State and at Oregon, showing wrinkles of vulnerability.

Still, they were the champs until someone proved otherwise. It would take a great team with a great player playing great -- North Carolina State and David Thompson. UCLA and N.C. State met up in the national semifinals, a titanic matchup that took two thrilling overtimes to decide.

The Bruins went up by seven early in the second OT, but the Wolfpack reeled off the next 11 points ... and that was that. N.C. State slayed the champion, 80-77, with Thompson scoring 28 points.

The unlikely champion: N.C. State

Norm Sloan's Wolfpack went on to beat Al McGuire's Marquette team in the championship game 76-64. N.C. State wasn't an unlikely champion, really, because it entered the tournament ranked No. 1 with a 26-1 record. Still, UCLA was the favorite. After all, the Wolfpack's one loss had been by 18 points early in the season ... to UCLA.

This group of Wildcats, called by Adolph Rupp the "greatest bunch of shooters I've ever had," went 24-1 in the regular season, entering the tournament as the country's No. 1 team. Kentucky beat second-ranked Duke in a national semifinal, a game most figured was for the title.

What went wrong: Winds of change

All-white Kentucky met up with Texas Western's all-black starting five in the final. That was the backdrop to this historical championship game, but the real story was the Miners' defense.

Coach Don Haskins surprised Kentucky with a three-guard lineup to counter the Wildcats' speed. The key sequence of the game came early as consecutive steals and layups by guard Bobby Joe Hill gave the Miners a 14-9 lead and made Kentucky play catch-up all game.

Rupp never got to the championship game again. By the time he retired six years later, Kentucky, like other schools in the south, had integrated black players into its program.

The unlikely champion: Texas Western

The Miners, whose school name would change to Texas-El Paso later that year, had no All-Americans. They didn't even have an all-district player. But they were a fantastic team, 23-1 entering the NCAAs.

The Buckeyes returned four starters from the 1960 national championship team and breezed through the regular season at 24-0. There was plenty of star power with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried -- and a tough reserve forward named Bob Knight.

Ohio State even entered the Final Four with momentum. The Buckeyes were coming off a regional final victory against Kentucky, fueled by one of the most remarkable individual performances in tournament history -- Lucas' 33 points, 30 rebounds.

What went wrong: Teamwork

Not on Ohio State's part, but from Cincinnati. It had taken the Bearcats a good part of the season, but new coach Ed Jucker got them adjusted to not having Oscar Robertson around any more, running a new offense that got all five players involved and installing an intense man-to-man defense.

The championship game was a classic. Close. Physical. Well played. Tied at 61 after regulation, Cincinnati forged ahead early in overtime and stayed ahead, winning 70-65. So after being the No. 1 team all season, Ohio State ended up second-best in its own state.

The unlikely champion: Cincinnati

The Bearcats lost three of their first eight games, adjusting to a new style of play. But once they did, they were unstoppable, finishing the season on a 22-game winning streak. They would repeat as champions in 1962, beating an Ohio State team that had lost once all season.