Saturday night’s second Final Four game is scheduled to start at 8:47 P.M., when top-seeded Duke takes on 2-seed West Virginia. Here’s a preview, courtesy of our own Chris Dobbertean.
Final Four, 8:47 P.M.: Duke Hopes To Beat West Virginia, Make Rest Of America Resent Them Even More
This one doesn’t have quite as many off-the-court storylines as game one, but there are still a few things worth mentioning.
- Will Darryl Bryant suit up for the Mountaineers? If he does, how effective can he possibly be with a broken bone in his foot? [Editor's note: it has been confirmed that Bryant will not play Saturday night.]
- Who will the crowd back in this one? In other words, did any neutrals in the crowd read Andrew Sharp's tome against Duke?
- Will the Blue Devils have revenge on their minds after 2008's second round loss to the Mountaineers in Washington, D.C.?
In their look at West Virginia, Duke Basketball Report thinks that while this matchup may be pretty even, the Mountaineers can’t expect things to go as smoothly as they did against Kentucky last Saturday.
A long time before this game, we said it was clear to us that Kentucky would have some issues at some point in the tournament, that they have not yet faced game pressure and that it wasn't clear what they would do when they did.
West Virginia exploited those issues brilliantly, and their 1-3-1 zone, which featured Devin Ebanks, Butler, Jones and Flowers at different times, presented what amounted to a wall, no pun intended, against Kentucky's penetration. The Wildcats came in as a weak three-point shooting team and nothing changed in this game. They simply couldn't adjust.
And while it's difficult to extrapolate from one game to the next, it seems to us reasonable to think that a more experienced team would have played West Virginia a little better.
Our Mountaineer blog, The Smoking Musket, counters by saying that all the factors are there for WVU to knock the Blue Devils out once again: an ignored man defense, the ability to make shots inside, a good chance at shutting down Duke’s scorers, and general team character.
It's Duke. We all saw what happened when WVU hit Duke in the mouth in Washington, DC two years ago. They fell down. Over and over again. Tough, scrappy players like Joe Mazzulla can have a field day against Duke. They're designed to stop more finesse teams from the ACC, not bruising, resourceful teams like West Virginia. We can match them athletically and defensively. And while they may have more size on the inside, it's not the type of size that generally bothers the Mountaineers. Personally, I see the game playing out very similarly to the UK game, in which we frustrate the Blue Devils to the point of no return.
In terms of a pick, I’m going to start by looking at a line in that Duke Basketball Report post.
And while this is perhaps not exactly correct, Baylor in many respects was a great warm-up for West Virginia.
That means this one should be as competitive as last Sunday’s South region final, but with one difference. A more veteran West Virginia team probably won’t get as flustered at the end as the Bears did at the end of the game. That composure could be the difference tonight.
My pick: West Virginia by four
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