It has all come down to this. The regional final and a trip to the Final Four is on the line. One team is in a familiar position as a storied program, but has not seen the Final Four since 2004. The other team has only won three tournament games since 1950, and those were all played this year. In the South Region, it’s (1) Duke and (3) Baylor. Duke, the team that most expected to make the regional final and Baylor the team, regardless of its high seed was not seen as making it as far as they have. This game will definitely be one to watch to see if one team will make a return to glory or if the other will put its stamp on history.
Head coach of the Bears, Scott Drew, took on the daunting challenge nearly seven years ago of rebuilding the broken and shattered Baylor basketball program. To most this seemed like an unreachable goal. That rebuilding this program was impossible and Baylor would never even remotely become what it once was, a respectable program. Well now, all those doubters have been put to rest as the University of Baylor has made it to its first ever Elite Eight in program history and gotten its first NCAA Tournament wins since 1950. If they want to get to their first ever Final Four, they have to go through mighty Duke.
There are plenty of similarities between the two schools. Both are private schools that take pride in their academic excellence, but their basketball programs have never been comparable until now. After beating three double-digit seeds to make it to the round of eight, (Sam Houston State, Old Dominion, St. Marys) Baylor is going to have its toughest test to just keep playing.
On the other side of things, Duke, led by longtime coach Mike Krzyzewski is back in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2004. Duke, itself, is used to these kinds of games, but its the closest the Duke players have even gotten to sniffing a Final Four. With Duke’s last national championship occurring in 2001, the Cameron Crazies would love nothing more than to see their precious Dukies back where they belong.
With the way the entire NCAA Tournament has gone this year, there is really no clear favorite in this game. Lets be serious, who saw Butler in the Final Four? We could possibly be seeing a Final Four with no number one seeds, depending on how this game plays out on Sunday. As a basketball fan, I would love to see the great story of the Baylor program taking down Duke and advancing to the Final Four. But its hard to go against an experienced Duke team led by Kyle Singler, who is averaging 21 points a game, and also the force down low in Brian Zoubeck, who is averaging 10 rebounds per game. The one thing to watch is going to be Baylor’s zone defense, which held St. Mary’s to a stifling 35 percent shooting and only 6 of 22 in three-point shooting. Much different from Purdue’s man to man defense, so Duke will have to adjust quickly.
This game will definitely be the game to watch and is set to tip off just after four o’ clock.
– John Thomas