Transfer Portal And Nil Are Making It Even More Difficult To Three-peat In College Basketball

Florida had a dominating team in 2005-06, winning 33 games on its way to the program's first national championship. The Gators returned nearly everyone the following season and did it again, becoming the seventh team to win consecutive national titles.

Their three-peat bid fell short the next year. The key players from the title teams were all gone and the Gators didn't even make the NCAA Tournament, proving just how difficult it is to win three straight national championships.

"It's just hard to win in general," said former Florida coach Billy Donovan, now the head coach of the NBA's Chicago Bulls. "I've always said this: If you played the NCAA Tournament over after it finished, you'd have a different national champion every year, for the most part."

Heading into this year's NCAA Tournament , one team has a chance at the first three-peat in more than 50 years: UConn.

Dan Hurley led the Huskies to their fifth national championship in 2023, retooled the roster and added No. 6 last season, becoming the first team since Donovan's Gators to go back to back.