Duke and Michigan State Advance to the Final Four

Two coaches who are no strangers to the Final Four saw their teams advance on March 29th. Duke, the #1 seed in the South Regional, beat #2 Gonzaga 66-52 in Houston. It will be the 121th time Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has coached the Blue Devils in the Final Four, tying him with UCLA’s John Wooden for the most appearances. And in the East Regional final, #7 Michigan State beat #4 Louisville in overtime 76-70. This will be MSU coach Tom Izzo’s seventh appearance in the Final Four.

This is Duke’s first Final Four since 2010. Last year, the third seeded Blue Devils had an embarrassing loss to #14 Mercer, but Duke is back at the top of its game and has a 33-4 record overall. Two of those losses were to Notre Dame, who took Kentucky to the wire before losing in the Midwest Regional final.

Michigan State surprised a lot of people–anytime a #7 seed makes it to the final four it’s at least a bit of a surprise–but Tom Izzo always has his team prepared and should never be overlooked, even in a somewhat off year like this one (22-11 coming into the tournament after a preseason rank of #18).

So it will be Wisconsin vs. Kentucky and Duke vs. Michigan State on Saturday April 4th, with the winners playing for the national championship on Monday April 6th. Duke beat Michigan State 81-71 on November 18th and the Blue Devils also topped Wisconsin 80-70 on December 3rd. Michigan State lost to Wisconsin 68-61 on March 1st and the Spartans also lost to the Badgers in the Big Ten Tournament championship game on March 15th 80-69 in overtime. Kentucky has not played any of the other three teams in the Final Four this season. In last year’s Final Four, Kentucky beat Wisconsin 74-73 before losing in the championship game to Connecticut.