:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72117270/112898481.0.jpg "Final Four history: When was last time Conference USA team advanced to Final Four in NCAA Tournament?")
The Final Four of the 2023 NCAA Men's Tournament will take place on Saturday and one of the teams that will be taking the floor is the No. 9 Florida Atlantic Owls. They will be representing Conference USA at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX, and the is the fourth team in league history to make it this far.
The last Conference USA team to reach the Final Four was Memphis in 2008. Led by future NBA MVP Derrick Rose and coached by John Calipari, the Tigers won 38 games and blew out UCLA in the national semifinals to reach the national championship game. It was there where they fell to the Mario Chalmers-led Kansas team in a 75-68 overtime thriller. Of course, none of this exists in the eyes of the NCAA as Memphis was later forced to vacate all of its wins and banners for this season due to Rose being retroactively deemed ineligible.
The other two C-USA teams that made the Final Four were the Dwyane Wade Marquette team in 2003 and Louisville in 2005. If you're confused about their inclusion on this list, well, C-USA has always been a revolving door of programs passing through on the way to another league. That is the case with this year's FAU team, who will be joining the AAC next season.