Wiedmer: Duke should now be NCAA favorite

Duke players and head coach Mike Krzyzewski hold up the championship trophy after a college basketball regional final game against Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament on March 29, 2015, in Houston. Duke won 66-52 to advance to the Final Four.
Duke players and head coach Mike Krzyzewski hold up the championship trophy after a college basketball regional final game against Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament on March 29, 2015, in Houston. Duke won 66-52 to advance to the Final Four.

Thirty-seven and oh no.

That's the thought that surely filled the minds of every University of Kentucky basketball fan watching Notre Dame craft a six-point lead over the undefeated Wildcats with 6:15 to play in their Midwest Regional final on Saturday night.

With LeBron James (neutral), Ashley Judd (UK) and New Jersey governor Chris Christie (ND) all present inside Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, with the largest cable television audience ever for a college basketball game watching at home, even the Cats were feeling the heat.

"Desperation," said eventual hero Andrew Harrison. "We were afraid we were going to lose."

Instead, UK hit its last nine shots from the floor, held the Fighting Irish scoreless for the game's final two and a half minutes and emerged with a 68-66 victory that's probably the highlight of the tournament going into this weekend's Final Four inside Indianapolis's Lucas Oil Stadium.

But now that Big Blue is 38-0, should the rest of the Final Four - fellow No. 1 seeds Wisconsin and Duke, plus No. 7 seed Michigan State - feel a bit of desperation against the only school in history to reach college basketball's last weekend with a 38-0 record?

"We're just happy to be playing," said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan after beating Arizona in the West Regional final but before the UK-ND game was final. "We'll play whoever is on that other line. That's okay by us."

Of course, the Wildcats nipped the Badgers on a late 3-pointer by Andrew Harrison's brother Aaron in last year's Final Four semifinal, and the main reason that Wisconsin stars Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky said no to last summer's NBA Draft was to have another shot at the school's second NCAA title this time around.

"That loss left a sour taste in our mouth, so we wanted to get back," said Dekker, whose 27 points ably backed Kaminsky's 29 in the 85-78 win. "As a team we set some goals of what we wanted to accomplish and those are still out there."

There were times this season when Michigan State's goal appeared nothing more lofty than making the tournament, thanks to a 15-8 record following a home loss to Illinois.

"Everybody doubted us. Everybody had us down and out," said junior forward Denzel Valentine, who had 15 points in Sunday's overtime win over Louisville in the East Regional final. "They didn't have us making the tournament. We just kept strong. We believe in ourselves."

They'll likely need all that belief and more to top Duke in Saturday's opening semifinal. The South Regional's top-seeded Blue Devils rolled second-seeded Gonzaga by 66-52 in Sunday's other regional final, handing Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski his 12th Final Four appearance, which ties the late UCLA coach John Wooden for the most all-time.

And should the Dookies deliver Coach K his fifth NCAA title - and the third he will have won in Indy - he'll fittingly trail only Wooden's 10 overall titles for most all-time.

Yet Indy should be a familiar Final Four site for all these schools, especially their fans. Duke won Krzyzewski his first title in the old RCA Dome in 1991, stopping UNLV's 31-0 run in the semifinals before besting Kansas in the title game. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo won his only title there in 2000, knocking off Florida in the title game after surviving fellow Big Ten member Wisconsin in the semis. Izzo also lost there in the 2010 national semifinals to Butler, who then lost to Duke. Kentucky lost to Arizona in overtime in the 1997 NCAA title game inside the RCA Dome, but UK also won the Midwest Regional inside Lucas Oil a year ago, beating Michigan on a last-second 3-pointer by Aaron Harrison.

So glittering is this quartet that all four have won at least one NCAA title, though Wisconsin has to go back to 1941 to celebrate its lone crown.

But can UK win its ninth a week from tonight?

"We didn't play very well, and Notre Dame, I thought, controlled the whole thing," Cats coach John Calipari said after directing UK to its fourth Final Four in five years. "But we made the plays. We figured out a way to win it. We're just saying one more game, play our best. We've had other tests, but we have a will to win."

Given that all four teams trailed at some point in the second half of their regional finals, they all have a will to win. In fact, Michigan State, which trailed Louisville by eight points at intermission, became the first U of L opponent to come by six or more points down at halftime to win in 95 games.

Said Louisville coach Rick Pitino afterward: "It's a bitter, bitter pill to swallow because we all had some big dreams."

The dreams are biggest for the four still playing, especially Kentucky, which is seeking to become the first undefeated NCAA champ since Indiana did it in 1976 and the first-ever champ to go 40-0.

And UK should advance to Monday's final against Duke, which will be CBS's dream come true, if it takes place.

But does Kentucky have enough to defeat the quicker, more physical, better shooting Blue Devils?

"We still can get better with two more games left in the season," the Cats' Aaron Harrison said late Saturday. "We have places to improve, and we will improve this week and go down there (to Indy) a different team."

As perfect as they've been, it will take a different team than outlasted Notre Dame to beat the Blue Devils in Monday's final. Eight days out, make it Duke 67, UK 65 on a last-second Justice Winslow 3, which would be the most bitter pill possible for Big Blue Nation.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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