The 2023 NCAA men's tournament came to a close on Monday night, with the UConn Huskies capping off a dominant run with a 76-59 victory over the San Diego State Aztecs to claim their fifth national championship, all of which have come since 1999.

From No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson pulling off the ultimate upset to a buzzer-beater in the Final Four to the first NCAA tournament ever to feature zero No. 1 seeds in the Elite Eight, it was a March Madness for the books.

Now it's time to slap a bow on this year's festivities with one final round of winners and losers, spanning the entirety of this year's tournament, from the First Four games on March 14 and 15 through the national championship game on Monday night.

It's been a wild ride. Thanks for reading along with us!

Loser: The Quest for a Perfect Bracket

Another year, another nation full of busted brackets.

The final perfect bracket was fed into the shredder when No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson upset No. 1 seed Purdue, which was the 25th game overall in this year's NCAA tournament.

What are the odds of it ever happening?

"The odds of a perfect 63-game NCAA bracket can be as high as 1 in 9.2 quintillion—though those are the perfect bracket odds if every game was a 50-50 coin flip," wrote Mike Benzie of NCAA.com. "If you take NCAA men's basketball knowledge into the formula, the odds of picking a perfect bracket can be as low as 1 in 28 billion."

The longest verified streak of correct picks before a bracket was busted was 49 games back in 2019, which rolled all the way into the Sweet 16 before No. 3 seed Purdue beat No. 2 seed Tennessee in overtime.

It didn't take nearly that long this time around, thanks to one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.

Winner: Fairleigh Dickinson and Coach Tobin Anderson

When the 2022 men's NCAA tournament tipped off, Tobin Anderson was still coaching at Division II St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York.

A year later, he was on the sidelines coaching Fairleigh Dickinson in a First Four play-in game against Texas Southern, a year after the Knights stumbled to a 4-22 record.

That quick turnaround alone would have made it a wildly successful season, and the Knights' lopsided 84-61 victory in the First Four was just icing on the cake.

That win set up a first-round meeting with No. 1 seed Purdue, pitting the smallest team in the tournament field against 7'4" All-American Zach Edey and the Boilermakers, and the Knights were 23.5-point underdogs.

Despite the David vs. Goliath look of the matchup, the Knights came out ready to play and looked completely unfazed by the moment.

Edey was his usual productive self with 21 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks, but the rest of the Boilermakers roster was shut down entirely. They shot just 5-of-26 from beyond the arc and turned it over 16 times en route to a 63-58 upset for the Knights.

The Cinderella story ended two days later when Florida Atlantic sent them packing, but it was just the second time in tournament history that a No. 16 seed has upset a No. 1 seed.

Two days after that loss, Anderson agreed to a five-year contract to become the new head coach at Iona, replacing Rick Pitino, who had just departed for the St. John's job.

Loser: The 2022-23 All-Americans

The biggest individual stars of the 2022-23 college basketball season have done little to make their mark on the NCAA tournament. We'll use this year's AP All-American teams to prove our point:

First Team

Zach Edey, Purdue—Eliminated in the first round
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana—Eliminated in the second round
Brandon Miller, Alabama—Eliminated in the Sweet 16
Marcus Sasser, Houston—Eliminated in the Sweet 16
Jalen Wilson, Kansas—Eliminated in the second round

Second Team

Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA—Eliminated in the Sweet 16
Jalen Pickett, Penn State—Eliminated in the second round
Drew Timme, Gonzaga—Eliminated in the Elite Eight
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky—Eliminated in the second round
Ąžuolas Tubelis, Arizona—Eliminated in the first round

Third Team

Armando Bacot, North Carolina—Did not make the tournament
Keyontae Johnson, Kansas State—Eliminated in the Elite Eight
Tyler Kolek, Marquette—Eliminated in the second round
Kris Murray, Iowa—Eliminated in the first round
Markquis Nowell, Kansas State—Eliminated in the Elite Eight

That's right, folks, not a single AP All-American reached the Final Four, and only six of the 15 managed to survive the opening weekend of the tournament.

Winner: Florida Atlantic's Cinderella Story

A tip of the cap to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson for upsetting No. 1 seed Purdue in the first round and No. 15 seed Princeton for reaching the Sweet 16 by beating No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 7 seed Missouri.

However, there is little question the biggest Cinderella story of the 2023 NCAA tournament was the No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic Owls.

Their tournament run almost never made it off the ground as they squeezed out a 66-65 victory over No. 8 seed Memphis in the first round, but that was followed by victories over Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 4 seed Tennessee and No. 3 seed Kansas State to claim the East Region title.

In the process, they became the fifth team in NCAA tournament history to reach the Final Four in the same year they recorded their first-ever tournament win.

With a nine-man rotation that lacked a true go-to scorer, they seemingly had a different player step up every game, with Johnell Davis' 29-point, 12-rebound, five-assist, five-steal box score stuffer against Fairleigh Dickinson and Vladislav Goldin's 14-point, 13-rebound effort against Kansas State among the more memorable performances.

They led by as many as 14 points in the second half against San Diego State in the Final Four, looking every bit the part of a team that belonged on that big stage.

That lead eventually evaporated, and they were sent home with a buzzer-beater from Lamont Butler, but it was an impressive run nonetheless and a Cinderella story that will be remembered for years to come.

Loser: No. 1 and No. 2 Seeds

No. 1 seed Purdue and No. 2 seed Arizona were the first high-profile teams to fall in the 2023 NCAA tournament, failing to advance beyond the first round, but that was just the start of the favorites toppling like dominoes.

The second round then claimed No. 1 seed Kansas and No. 2 seed Marquette, and with those four teams gone before the dust settled on the opening weekend, more than a few brackets had already been reduced to rubble.

Then came history.

When No. 1 seeds Alabama and Houston both lost in the Sweet 16, it became the first time in NCAA tournament history that no top seeds made it to the Elite Eight, and No. 2 seed UCLA also fell in that round, leaving No. 2 seed Texas as the last team standing from the top-two seed lines.

The Longhorns blew a 13-point second-half lead against No. 5 seed Miami in the Elite Eight and lost 88-81, officially shutting out the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds from a trip to the Final Four in the process.

If you're a fan of parity, the 2023 NCAA tournament has truly been a dream come true.

Winner: A Final Four Buzzer-Beater

What more can you ask for as a college basketball fan?

It looked like the Final Four matchup between Florida Atlantic and San Diego State was headed for a lopsided finish when the Owls built a commanding 54-40 lead with 14:56 remaining in the second half.

However, the Aztecs managed to whittle away at that lead over the next 10 minutes, and they finally pulled even at 65-65 with 4:26 left in the game.

Despite the clean slate, the Aztecs never claimed the lead until the final play of the game.

Off a missed drive attempt from Johnell Davis, the Aztecs pulled down the defensive rebound, and Lamont Butler drove the length of the floor. Head coach Brian Dutcher kept his final timeout in his pocket, and after briefly looking like Butler might just let time expire without getting a shot up, he elevated with two seconds left and drilled the game-winning jumper as time expired.

It's a replay that will be shown for years to come, and it's the signature moment of the 2023 NCAA tournament.

Loser: The San Diego State Half-Court Offense vs. UConn's Size Inside

San Diego State has developed into a perennial tournament team and top dog in the Mountain West Conference on the strength of a methodical half-court offense that can take opponents out of their comfort zone by slowing down the pace of the game.

UConn was having none of that.

It became clear early on in Monday night's contest that their inside game was not going to work, with 7'2" Donovan Clingan, 6'9" Adama Sanogo and 6'8" Alex Karaban contesting every inside shot attempt.

The Aztecs connected on just 5-of-17 two-point attempts during the first half, including 3-of-13 on shots inside of 10 feet, and their 24 points were the third-lowest total heading into the break in a title game since 1985.

Facing a 12-point deficit, the Aztecs were forced to assume a more perimeter-oriented game in the second half, despite not being a particularly good outside shooting team. They entered Monday averaging seven made threes per game and shooting 35.1 percent from beyond the arc.

They finished 6-of-23 from beyond the arc on the night and shot just 32.2 percent overall from the field, and for all the work they did trying to claw back into the game, they were still outscored 40-35 in the second half.

A tip of the cap to the Aztecs on a great season, which included becoming the first team ever from the Mountain West to reach the Final Four.

Winner: The 2022-23 UConn Huskies

We've just witnessed one of the most dominant NCAA tournament runs of all time.

Anyone who watched the UConn Huskies play for the first time during March Madness might find it difficult to believe that they lost eight games during the regular season. Heck, it's hard to believe they lost even one game the way they've been playing the last few weeks.

The final scores of their March Madness run tell the story:

First Round: UConn, 87, Iona 63
Second Round: UConn 70, Saint Mary's 55
Sweet 16: UConn 88, Arkansas 65
Elite Eight: UConn 82, Gonzaga 54
Final Four: UConn 72, Miami 59
Title Game: UConn 76, San Diego State 59

That's a combined margin of victory of 120 points in six games.

Adama Sanogo averaged 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds on 66.7 percent shooting during the tournament to earn Most Outstanding Player honors, but there were impressive performances up and down the roster.

From the elite outside shooting of Jordan Hawkins to the senior leadership of Tristen Newton, to the do-it-all production of Andre Jackson Jr., to the tantalizing potential of freshmen Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan, it was a total team effort.

Congratulations to the 2022-23 UConn Huskies on a truly dominant run through the tournament field on their way to the fifth national championship in school history.