Final Four: Winner of West Virginia-Duke gets a shot at hometown Butler

Final Four: West Virginia-Duke minutes from tip

This year represents only the second Final Four that Duke has missed since 1953.

Wayne Duke, that is.

The first full-time NCAA employee, who later became commissioner of the Big Eight and Big Ten, Duke wasn’t allowed to make the trip to Indianapolis from his home in Barrington, Ill., after undergoing recent shoulder surgery.

What made the doctors’ decision even tougher is that Duke is a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2010 class that is being honored this weekend.

Everyone involved at the Final Four — administrators, coaches, players and fans — should all know his name. Duke is one of the architects of what turned into March Madness.

Keep an eye on Joe Mazzulla and the rough reception he might get from Duke players.

Two years ago in West Virginia’s second-round victory over the Blue Devils, the point guard gave the court a palms-down slap — a gesture that could have been considered a jab at one of Duke’s signature moves on defense, which fires up the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Mazzulla still says he didn’t mean anything by it.

“You don’t think you get a chance to play Duke that many times in your career, and they’re such a great team with such a great history,” he said. “You get caught up in the emotions. It was a spur of the moment-type thing.”

The Duke players downplayed the floor slap, saying there’s no use getting worked up about something that happened two years ago.

“We’re really not using that as a payback-type thing,” guard Jon Scheyer said. “But for us, of course we want to beat a team that knocked us out. Who wouldn’t?”

The big question: Does Mazzulla plan on slapping the floor during the rematch Saturday night? “Depends on how the game goes,” he said with a laugh.

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins sure doesn’t seem too riled up moments before his team takes on Duke in the national semifinals.

Asked what a victory would mean, he demurely replied: “It means we need one more, then. One more and we take that tour bus around the state with a trophy.”

Well said, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Standing in front of the Mountaineers is a Duke team that is among the best in the nation on the offensive glass, has a terrific 3-point shooter in Jon Scheyer, and inside-outside threat in Kyle Singler and a 7-1 big man in Brian Zoubek.

Not that Huggins and his boys will be intimidated.

“We play in the Big East. It’s not like we haven’t played against good players,” Huggins said. “We’re just going to have to do what we do. We’re just going to have to go play the way we have the whole year.”

The drama isn’t over in Indianapolis, even though a good portion of the crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium couldn’t care less who wins the nightcap: The hometown Bulldogs are already in the national championship game.

Nevertheless, fans in Morgantown and Durham are turning up the volume on their TV sets.

West Virginia and Duke have taken the court for warmups, with the winner advancing to the marquee game Monday night. It’s a matchup between the blue-collared and the blueblood, between a coach who has never won a national title and another who has three of them.

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins promised when he took over his alma mater that he’d raise banners back in Morgantown, and he’ll have a chance after guiding the Mountaineers to their first Final Four since 1959. It’s also the first trip for Huggins since 1992, when he led Cincinnati to within two games of a title.

Compare that to Mike Krzyzewski, who has guided the Blue Devils to 11 Final Fours and won national championships in 1991, ‘92 and 2001. Duke already has 33 wins this season, its most since the last title team won 35 games.

Tipoff is just a few minutes away.

Forget about “Hoosiers,” folks. Butler is putting together its own incredible story.

The Bulldogs will be playing for a national championship Monday night.

Baby-faced forward Gordon Hayward scored 19 points and the fifth-seeded Horizon League champions knocked off Big Ten heavyweight Michigan State 52-50 in the Final Four.

Shelvin Mack battled through muscle spasms to add 14 points for the Bulldogs, the team that practices in the same building — Hinkle Fieldhouse — where they filmed the movie “Hoosiers” about the upstart high school team that proved they could beat anybody.

Just like the Bulldogs.

The scrappy team coached by a 33-year-old former marketing employee for Eli Lilly will play West Virginia or Duke for the national title. And just imagine what the atmosphere will be like at Lucas Oil Stadium, a 10-minute drive from the Butler campus.

“I’ll be honest, there’s so many people here I just wanted to focus on the court,” coach Brad Stevens said moments after the game, basking in the adulation that comes with a victory on the game’s biggest stage.

“Both sides really battled,” he said. “We were lucky to be up two at the end, and I think the difference was we held them to 3-0 the last 30 minutes, and we needed to.”

Butler will carry a 25-game winning streak into the championship game, the longest since Duke won 32 straight entering the 1992 national title game.

“Just really excited right now,” Hayward said.

Butler shot just 30 percent from the field and hit 5 of 21 from 3-point range, but the Bulldogs made up for it by going 17 of 24 from the foul line — including two by Ronald Nored, a 61-percent free-throw shooter, with 6.1 seconds remaining.

The Bulldogs fouled on purpose when Michigan State crossed midcourt, and Korie Lucious made the first free throw before missing the second on purpose. But the Spartans couldn’t track down the offensive rebound to put up a tying shot.

Lucious finished with 12 points and Durrell Summers had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans, who were trying to advance to the title game on the 10th anniversary of their second national championship.

Michigan State was hampered by missing star guard Kalin Lucas, who ruptured his Achilles’ tendon against Maryland in the second round. The Spartans wound up with 16 turnovers, and Butler turned them into a 20-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

And a trip to the national championship game.