A traditional blue blood team reasserted themselves as king of the hill while an up-and-coming dynasty has seemingly had the torch passed to them as the premier basketball destination in the country.

The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team and the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks women’s basketball team are the 2022 March Madness tournament champions.

Fifteen was the magic number for both programs. Kansas was down 15 at the break before mounting a record-setting comeback, while South Carolina won by 15 over the most historic women’s basketball program ever.

For Kansas, they defeated North Carolina in a game where they set the record for a halftime comeback in the title game. This came on the heels of their Elite Eight performance against Miami, where they outscored the Hurricanes 47 to 15 in the second half. They may have had the best second-half adjustments in the history of the tournament.

They now have four national titles in their illustrious history, and are now one of the top favorites to repeat next year, along with the current popular pick of the Arkansas Razorbacks and their highly-touted incoming recruiting class.

However, the newest dynasty resides in South Carolina, where the women’s basketball team just won their second title under the leadership of Dawn Staley, head coach. While some may say it is a little too early to proclaim a dynasty, this is South Carolina’s second title in five tournaments, and more importantly, they have become a lock-in for the Final Four year in and year out.

Even more important is the fact they did this to Geno Auriemma and UConn, who have won 11 titles under his leadership. UConn has always been the gold standard for women’s basketball, but after trailing the entirety of the game to South Carolina in an effort where the Lady Gamecocks would end up winning by 15 points, it felt like the torch was passed from Auriemma to Staley. This is also compounded by the fact UConn has won zero titles since 2017, compared to South Carolina’s two.

This is only going to increase their momentum, with not only recruiting, but also getting the best players from the transfer portal. Their talent is only going to increase exponentially. Look for them to be in the Final Four every single season. If Staley doesn’t leave, don’t expect the talent to leave, either.

Kansas won a tournament dominated by blue bloods and reestablished what many people seemed to have forgotten due to St. Peter’s immaculate run to the Elite Eight: Cinderella’s don’t win championships, but major basketball programs always will. The four teams in the Final Four were Duke, North Carolina, Villanova and the Jayhawks. All four of those schools would be considered blue bloods. The more things change in college basketball, the more they seem to stay the same.