OMAHA, Neb. — This March has delivered the first🏅 No. 1 vs. No. 16 upset. It has produced Sister Jean and 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago’s incredible journey to the Final Four, the unlikely runs of nine-seeds F𝓀lorida State and Kansas State.
It has brought chaos and unpredictability, but th✱e b🍌est, the game of the tournament, is yet to come.
That likely happens early Sunday evening.
Top-seeded Kansas against No. 2 Duke.
Hall of Fame coaches Bi🐼ll Self and Mi♒ke Krzyzewski.
Naismith Award finalists♚ Marvꦛin Bagley III and Devonte’ Graham.
Eight national titles anꦰd 30 Final Fours between the two.
Two of the country’s preeminent programs, the bluest of the blue𓃲 bloods, battling for a Final Four berth in the one region tha🍌t went chalk.
“We’re both 🔯here for a reason,” Bagley said Saturday as the two teams prepared for a rematch of the 1991 national championship game.
“Players come to Kansas and�ꦇ� they go to Duke to play in games just like this,” Self said.
Both programs had to make significant adjustments to get to this point. For Kansas (30-7), it was resorting to a four-guard lineup, a rarity under Self, when McDonald’s All-American forward👍 Billy Preston left the team in January in the wake of an NCAA investigation into extra benefits he may have received.
Self has been critical of 🌟this team, often calling his players soft. There was a𝓀 3-3 stretch when it looked like the Jayhawks’ streak of 14 consecutive Big 12 titles would come to an end. A knee injury to star center Udoka Azubuike that forced him to miss the Big 12 Tournament limited him for the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
“I think 🐠of all the teams that we’ve had here, this would be the team that everyone would have🅘 thought would not be in this game,” Self said.
Duke (29-7), meanwhile, struggled mightily defensively for most of the season. It lost to sub-.500 St. John’s and Boston College. There we♛re three losses in four games in early February. The season began to turn when Krzyzewski committed to a 2-3 zone that better fit his personnel, which has led to 10 wins in 12 games.
“Coach adjus🔴ts, that’s one of the things that makes him so great,” senior guard Grayson Allen said. “We found out that zone was the best defense for this team, and we found it out about halfway t🐓hrough the year.”
Experience has prevailed over youth the past two years, veterans besting freshmen in March. The past two national champions, North Carolina and Villanova, were full of seniors. The last freshmen-led teams to reach the sport’s prꦚemier event were Duke and Kentucky in 2015.
Those Blue De🌜vils — led by Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones — won it all that year, and they’re now one win away from returning to the Final Four. There are similarities to that group. A strong core of likely one-and-done freshmen with senior ꦬleadership. Quinn Cook was the guiding force behind the 2015 team, and Allen, a freshmen on that championship team, is leading this unit.
“They’ve matured a lot over the year and that was one of 🅘the special things about the three freshmen on the 2015 team is they were very matu꧙re, and especially come tournament time they didn’t play like freshmen,” Allen said. “And right now they’re getting there and they have matured, and now they play with a lot of experience.”
But to get to San Antonio, Duke will have to get past Kansas and its experience. The Jay𒁃hawks, led by seniors Graham and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, have been here each of the past two years, and are motivated not to suffer the heartbreak of the past two March’s. They have waited a full year to get ba꧃ck to this point for retribution, and erase the painful memories.
“You just need one more win to g🤡et to where you always dreamed to be of as a kid, playing in Final Four,” Graham said.
Then again, this is one of the reasons the Duke freshman chose to come to Durham, to leave their own March mark. It’s the expectation, ཧnot the🔯 hope for the Blue Devils.
“The biggest bridge you can cross is the Final Four bridge,” Krzyzewski said. “No matter how many games yo🌼u’ve won, if you haven’t gone there, it’s an empty feeling.”
One will feel it Sunday night and ❀one won’t, after Duk♏e and Kansas meet with everything on the line. The best of this wild month is on tap.