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As the college basketball season wheels around its final corners into March Madness, the nation's top teams are hoping to gun their motors at just the right time and ascend to the NCAA championship. Every year, of course, one team winds up driving the Cadillac. But what happens the next season? Will the gears still mesh smoothly? Or will the wheels come off?

While many of the same cast of characters seem able to shift into overdrive at tournament time each year, very few are built as high-mileage models. In fact, it's not that uncommon to win the national championship one year and then crash out of the tournament picture the next. 

You might recall Duke nearly surviving Arkansas' "40 Minutes of Hell" defense but falling 76-72 in the 1994 title game. But do you remember the Blue Devils driving into a ditch and finishing five games below .500 the next year? P.J. Carlesimo's Seton Hall team fought into overtime before succumbing against Glen Rice and Michigan in the 1989 championship game. But the Hall's 12-16 record the next season indicates they could have used a tuneup. Perhaps most famously of all, Magic Johnson and Michigan State defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State for the 1979 crown. The next year, the Spartans were roadkill at 12-15.

The field is now set and despite some rocky moments, last year’s champion Connecticut Huskies return to the tournament. Last year, they rode into the tournament high off a Big East Championship and earned a 3 seed. This year? They’re right in the middle of the pack as an 8 seed in the West Region. As for the team the Huskies took down to win the title? Butler failed to make the tournament for the first time in 6 years. But that massive fall from grace still wasn't enough to land them on our list of the Top 10 Worst Seasons After Reaching the Championship Game.