DJ's Spin: An unlikely foursome heading to Indianpolis for NCAA championship

One could ave made a reasonable case for each of the 2010 Final Four participants. What would have been difficult was to put all four of them on the floor Saturday in front of 71,300 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

So, Duke for the first time since 2004, Michigan State for the sixth time in 12 years, West Virginia for the first time since Jerry West got it there in 1959, and Butler, playing 6 miles from its beloved Hinkle Fieldhouse, for the first time.

Duke, the lone No. 1 seed to get through, plays West Virginia in Saturday's second game after Michigan State plays Butler.

Duke (33-5) got sent to the weaker South bracket and really was not tested until yesterday's regional final against Baylor. The Blue Devils caught undermanned No. 4 seed Purdue and outlasted them in the Sweet 16. Baylor had every chance for the upset yesterday, but could not finish. Duke got to the foul line and made threes. Which is what it does.

No. 2 seed West Virginia (31-6) upset Kentucky in the East final because of its will and toughness. If there is one team left that looks like it may refuse to lose, it is the Mountaineers. This group is not pretty, but nobody plays with more effort. And they have Da'Sean Butler, who is starting to look like this year's Danny Manning.

No. 5 seed Michigan State (28-8) caught the kinds of breaks a team without overwhelming ability and its best player, Kalin Lucas, needed on its way to consecutive Final Fours. No 1 seed Kansas, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Georgetown were all gone before the Spartans got to them. After gagging up a big, late lead against Maryland, they won the second-round game on a buzzer-beater by an erratic shooter. And then beat Tennessee by a point yesterday.

No. 5 seed Butler (32-4) had a brutal road back home. First, the Bulldogs had to fly to San Jose and beat difficult UTEP and Murray State. Then, after a brief trip home, they had to fly to Salt Lake and upset No. 1 seed Syracuse and No. 2 seed Kansas State. Butler got breaks when the 'Cuse's Arinze Onuaku was unable to play and K-State had to go two overtimes to beat Xavier. Still, the Bulldogs made every play down the stretch of their last three wins when a single false step might have sent them home without any more games to play.

The four teams are a combined 124-23. No Kansas, Kentucky or Syracuse, but still some very serious teams, two with a chance to give their schools a first national championship, one (Duke) a fourth and one (Michigan State) a third.

This is not Duke circa 1986-1994, when it was in every Final Four but two and won two national titles. Nor is this the Duke of 1998-2002, when it had overwhelming talent, won a third national title and played for another.

What separates this Duke team from more recent versions, the teams that backed down when it got too tough, is that this team has resilience. That wasn't as clear during the season when it went 5-5 on the road, but it is clearer now. Duke makes big shots, gets big rebounds and plays much better team defense than recent versions.

You can watch a lot of halves and never see one like WVU-UK.

WVU was 0-for-16 from two and 8-for-15 from the arc. Because of all the misses, WVU got crushed on the glass, 29-13. Because of all the threes, it led at the half.

Kentucky missed its first 20 three-pointers against WVU and shot 6-for-48 in the two Carrier Dome games. UK was also 16-for-29 from the foul line against WVU.

When West Virginia took control, UK's kids looked like teenagers on the court for the first time. They collapsed mentally and, by the time they recovered, the game, their season and the quick college careers of John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were over.

Just like last season, Michigan State was good during the regular season, but far from great. And just like last season, it is going to the Final Four.

Izzo is a ridiculous 33-10 in the tournament since 1999. He is 6-1 in regional finals. The only loss came in 2003 to Texas - in San Antonio.

A lot of smart people just advance Michigan State every year regardless of the draw. It has been a pretty good move half the time over a dozen years.

You may have heard that there is a school of thought that Duke gets a lot of calls. I generally am not a conspiracy theorist, but I did find yesterday's second half and endgame interesting.

Duke could not get to the rim against Baylor's shot-blockers, but, after attempting just two free throws in the first half, shot 27 in the second half. Duke shot just 36 percent, but was great on the offensive glass (22 o-boards) and made 11 threes.

The Bears led by two with 4 1/2 minutes left when Quincy Acy had a straight run down the baseline to the rim. Brian Zoubek jumped in his path. The shot was good. Charge. No basket.

A minute later with the score tied, Nolan Smith, who was great with a career-best 29 points, missed a free throw. Lance Thomas reached over a Baylor player to control the rebound. That is almost always called a foul, even when it isn't. No foul was called. Smith got open for a three, nailed it and Baylor melted down from there.

Well, there was WVU's Butler making all those big shots to give his team belief in the first half. Is there anybody in the country you want taking a big shot more than Butler?

And there was Brad Stevens, the brilliant young Butler coach.

Butler committed 23 turnovers in its first three tournament games. After taking a 10-point lead with 7 1/2 minutes left against K-State, the Bulldogs quickly fell apart - missing free throws, losing the ball (on the way to 20 turnovers) and basically looking lost.

In barely 2 1/2 minutes, K-State had the lead. So, with one of his players trapped and looking scared in front of his bench, Stevens calmly took two steps toward an official and called timeout.

Butler scored 12 of the next 14 points and won going away. I think calm plays well with most players. Butler is a classic example. Only 33, Stevens is the calmest coach in America, which has to be one of the reasons his team is so live down the stretch. Butler can win this whole thing.

-- That Kansas State's brilliant guards, Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen, combined for 170 points and 30 threes in their four NCAA Tournament games.

-- That Tennessee still had a timeout when J.P. Prince caught that pass at midcourt. If the Vols call it, they have the ball at midcourt with 1 second left and a real chance to score.

-- That the last 10 teams that have won NCAA overtime games have lost their next game.

-- That Butler will play in front of 20,000 fewer people Saturday than it did during its entire home schedule and that Hinkle Fieldhouse was just two-thirds full for the Horizon League championship game. There may have been more people there Sunday at 3 a.m. when the team returned from Salt Lake.

-- That Philly guys Joe Lindsay and Jeff Clark got Sweet 16 ref assignments. Lindsay did the Duke-Purdue game while Clark got Michigan State-Northern Iowa.

-- That the Atlantic 10 has had a pretty good postseason - outside the limelight. Temple and Richmond were gone quickly from the NCAA, but Xavier was thisclose to the Elite Eight. Dayton and Rhode Island are in tomorrow's NIT semifinals. And Saint Louis will play VCU for the CBI title.