NCAA Men's Capsules: Final Four teams make it to Indy with D

INDIANAPOLIS — Fans who love great shooting, free-flowing basketball and overworked scoreboard operators might want to bypass the Final Four this year. Those who like watching teams grind and don’t mind seeing a few bodies flying around — well, Indianapolis is the place for you.

The common theme at this year’s Final Four is hard-nosed, stingy defense.

Butler got here by shutting down three of the nation’s biggest playmakers. Michigan State made it without its leading scorer. West Virginia busted out a 1-3-1 zone trap to shut down its opponents. Duke advanced even though one of its best players shot 0 for 10.

Entertaining?

"Probably not," Spartans guard Raymar Morgan said.

But competitive? If it’s anything like the rest of the tournament, it should be.

Expect baskets to come at a premium and bruises to be in abundance when Michigan State plays Butler and West Virginia faces Duke in the national semifinals Saturday. All four teams have made it on the strength of strong defense and rebounding — and despite the absence of a big-time scoring superstar.

"Our team totally wants to rebound and play defense," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Thursday, when the teams practiced for the first time at cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium. "It’s much different than some Duke teams of the past. But they’ve accepted what they are, which is good, and they’ve tried to become better at who they are."

Indeed, the thought of Grant Hill or Christian Laettner having an 0-for-10 night and the Blue Devils still winning doesn’t really fit into the typical Duke paradigm.

But against Baylor last weekend, Kyle Singler did that. Singler finished with five points — 12 below his average — but spent most of his energy trying to slow down LaceDarius Dunn. In the second round against Cal, Duke’s Jon Scheyer — the Final Four’s most prolific scorer at 18.2 points a game — went 1 for 11.

The Blue Devils (33-5), the only No. 1 seed at this year’s Final Four, won both, thanks largely to a defense anchored by 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek and five more players at 6-8 or taller, including Singler. Duke outrebounded teams 560-443 on the offensive glass this season.

"For this Duke team, it’s about figuring out ways to win," Singler said. "Sometimes, you just have to change your mindset."

Fortunately for Duke — maybe unfortunately for those who will watch Saturday’s game — West Virginia can’t shoot it much, either.

The game pairs the Big East’s No. 12 shooting team against No. 8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But West Virginia won its games by an average of nearly 10 points — second in the Big East — and Duke won by 16.2, which was first in the ACC.

The Mountaineers (31-6) came to the stadium Thursday wearing T-shirts that said, "Do What We Do." Asked what the true message of the shirts was, forward Da’Sean Butler said "we’re not going to beat you shooting a lot of 3s, or shooting in general."

"It’s not going to be about fast breaking and beating you in transition," he said. "If we’re doing what we do, it’s playing ‘D,’ rebounding, playing a rugged style that no one wants to watch. We usually win when we do those things."

As the postseason approached, the Mountaineers urged coach Bob Huggins to bring back the 1-3-1 zone trap that his predecessor, John Beilein, used with success.

Hard to argue with the results. West Virginia hasn’t lost since Feb. 22. In the East Regional final, Kentucky missed its first 20 3-pointers in a 73-66 loss to the Mountaineers.

"We know how we need to play to win," said Huggins, who has a slightly different take on the T-shirts. "We’ve got to play to our strengths rather than show everyone all the things we can’t do."

On the other side of the bracket, Morgan of Michigan State said he fully expects a game played in the 50s or 60s. (The over-under in Vegas is 126.)

Michigan State is, as many will recall, a team known to practice in football pads to gear up for the grind of the Big Ten.

Kalin Lucas, the Spartans’ leading scorer this season at 15.2 points a game, will be on the sideline with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Outside of Lucas, and 11-point scorers Morgan and Durrell Summers, Michigan State has nobody else averaging in double figures.

Not hard to figure out how the Spartans (28-8) win. Their opponents shoot 40.8 percent, and they outrebound teams by nearly nine a game.

"It’s going to be a little bit refreshing to have to watch and say, ‘How did that team do that? Not, how did Magic Johnson or Carmelo Anthony do that?" coach Tom Izzo said. "It really speaks to what team sports are about."

Michigan State’s opponent, Butler, is writing the same kind of story.

When the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (32-4) entered the West Regional, the common thought was that they would need a superlative shooting effort to have any chance to knock off No. 1 Syracuse or No. 2 Kansas State.

In destroying the stereotype people had — a plucky underdog whose biggest star is its gym — and showcasing what they really are — a legit, top-10 team with plenty of talent — the Bulldogs won a different way.

They shot only 25 percent from 3-point range against Syracuse but bottled up Orange guard Andy Rautins, who came in looking like a tournament MVP but finished with 15 points and never took over the game.

Against Kansas State, the Bulldogs stopped the most explosive guard tandem in the country in Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente, holding them to a single basket in the first half and a combined 11 for 30 for the game.

Butler guards Ronald Nored and Willie Veasley got most of the credit for that. Neither was very well known outside of Indy before the tournament.

"I think you could ask Rautins or Pullen, they would know," Butler’s Matt Howard said.

All in all, it may not be pretty. But if the Final Four is anything like the rest of the NCAA tournament, it will feature tight games, crazy finishes and, of course, a good dose of hard-nosed defense.

"You’ve got four teams that very much believe in their teammates, that very much believe in the systems and styles of play," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "And they very much believe in defending. That’s obvious."

WVa’s Huggins isn’t about to change for anyone

INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Huggins is bombastic to some, a lovable, emotional Huggy Bear to others. He’s known as a great recruiter, been called a cheater.

The West Virginia coach is considered incredibly loyal, yet left Kansas State hanging after a single season. He can seem bored answering questions one minute, affable and joking the next. He produces NBA players, though few graduates. He’s magna-cum-laude smart, but occasionally has lapses in judgment.

Of all the coaches at the Final Four, Huggins is the enigma.

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is always going to be sincere and friendly, yet fiercely competitive. Duke’s Mike Krzyzweski efficient, professional, fiery when he needs to be. Butler’s Brad Stevens young, driven, enthusiastic.

Huggins? He’s been a winner wherever he’s been. The rest depends on the perspective.

"People don’t see the charismatic, joking, laughing side. I wouldn’t call it a smile; It’s more of a grin for him," West Virginia forward Kevin Jones said Thursday, two days before the Mountaineers face Duke in the Final Four. "They don’t see that outside the cameras. They just see him yelling at us all the time."

Huggins’ journey has the earmarks of a redemption story: Coach builds winning program, survives heart attack, gets fired, returns to his alma mater and leads it to the Final Four for the first time in 51 years.

But this odyssey has nothing to do with atonement or recovery for Huggins.

Loved or hated, Huggins is going to be consistently inconsistent, the nonconformist in a black windbreaker who does things his way — whether people like it or not.

"The people who know me know what I’m about," Huggins said.

Huggins’ trip started where it has ended, in Morgantown, W.Va. He was born in the town along the Monongahela River, was a two-time Academic All-American as a player at West Virginia and got his start in coaching with the Mountaineers, as a graduate assistant in 1977.

But Cincinnati was where Huggins made his name — good and bad.

He led the Bearcats to the 1992 Final Four in his third season, 13 straight NCAA appearances after that. Huggins established himself as one of the nation’s best recruiters, producing NBA-caliber talent nearly every year and earning a reputation as a demanding coach who could get his players to do things no one thought they could.

An unlucky rash of injuries kept his teams from making deep runs in the NCAA tournament, but his reputation as a winner was set.

"I was at a speaking engagement with (Louisville’s) Denny Crum and he said, ‘You have to be lucky and you can’t be unlucky,’" Huggins said. "Then he pointed at me and said, ‘That’s the most unlucky guy I know.’"

But Huggins also created some of his own bad luck, trouble stacking up along with the wins.

Huggins’ teams had a 0.0 graduation rate several seasons and his players were viewed as thugs who were constantly in trouble with the law, including an incident where two were accused of punching a police horse.

Huggins survived a heart attack in 2002 — he was back on the court less than two weeks later — but couldn’t shake the effects of an embarrassing DUI arrest that was caught on video and helped start a contentious feud with university president Nancy Zimpher that led to his firing in 2005.

Nowhere left to turn, he spent a year out of coaching before returning at Kansas State. Huggins led the Wildcats to the 2007 NIT, but erased all the goodwill by bolting for his alma mater after a season.

Since then, it’s been all good Hugs.

On the court, he’s led the Mountaineers to the NCAA tournament three straight years, including their first run to the Final Four since Jerry West did it in 1959. Off it, he’s been a perfect mesh for the blue-collar work ethic of an entire state — he’s one of them, after all — and become the man everyone in West Virginia seems to love.

"There’s not a better human being in this business than Bob Huggins," said Kansas State coach Frank Martin, Huggins’ assistant at Cincinnati and K-State. "There’s not a more deserving person in this business than Bob Huggins. It’s about time people start talking about the man and the coach that he is rather than some of his unfortunate transgressions, which we’ve all had in our lives. He is a man’s man."

This man still has two sides to him.

Though he’s toned it down a decibel or two — OK, maybe just one — Huggins is still unafraid to let his players or an offending official know what he thinks in his typical hurt-your-feelings bluntness. He’s got an emotional side, too, allowing the tears to flow when West Virginia’s adopted anthem, John Denver’s "Country Roads," played after the Mountaineers advanced to the Final Four.

After all he’s been through, he’s still an enigma, a hot-blooded Huggy Bear.

"At times, it gets hard, but look at where you’re at because of him," West Virginia forward Wellington Smith said. "Once you see that and how your game has evolved as you’ve been with him, you see how many opportunities open for you with him being your coach. It’s a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world."

Neither would Huggins.

-- John Marshall

Butler’s Final Four run gives Indiana new favorite

INDIANAPOLIS — The Hoosier State has gone to the dawgs.

Once relegated to second-class status behind Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue, Butler has ridden a 24-game winning streak into the NCAA semifinals for a game against Michigan State on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs have also elbowed their way to the forefront of conversations across basketball-mad Indiana, winning converts with their baby-faced coach and style points, too.

They take pride in passing. They play defense. They credit others. And two-thirds of the roster grew up in Indiana. The combination has given Butler the most treasured commodity in Indiana basketball — statewide support — even while Purdue and Notre Dame are surging and the Hoosiers are rebuilding.

"Today everyone in Indianapolis is a Butler Bulldog," Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard — an Indiana graduate — declared at a raucous pep rally this week that was more like an event for the NFL’s Colts.

From small-town Connersville to Muncie, blue Butler shirts are popping up everywhere — even on Indiana’s Bloomington campus, where red-favoring locals have gone from casual observers to Butler backers (at least for this week).

At Victory Field, home of Indy’s minor-league baseball team, the words "Go Dawgs" have been scripted in the stands. At the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, with its interactive exhibits and life-size cutouts of players past, growing crowds are asking questions about Butler basketball.

"This is a tremendous basketball state and you remember all the years IU got to the Final Four, it captivated the state," said Indiana football coach Bill Lynch, a Butler Hall of Famer. "I’m sure it would be the same way if Purdue got there, too. I remember when Indiana State went, that kind of came out of nowhere."

The Sycamores’ moment in the spotlight faded quickly after Larry Bird went on to the NBA and the Hoosiers used their success to maintain a firm grip on the state’s No. 1 program for decades.

Until this week the Hoosiers were the only Indiana school to reach the Final Four since 1981.

Cindy Burzk and her husband, Jim, met at Indiana University and have been Hoosiers fans for more than four decades. On Saturday, they’ll be Bulldogs fans.

"Since IU’s not here, we’re rooting for Butler," Burzk said.

The Bulldogs epitomize what Indiana fans like to see:

— Since 2000, they have won more conference titles than Purdue, Notre Dame and Indiana combined.

— They’ve won more overall games than the Big Three over the past 10 seasons.

— They’ve made more NCAA tournament tips (five), than the Boilermakers, Irish or Hoosiers since 2003.

— They graduate 90 percent of their players.

— And they’ve done it all without producing a single NBA player.

Purists love it.

"You look at how they do it, and you see a team that really wants to play as a team, and no individuals that want to play as individuals," said 54-year-old Randy Parr, an Indianapolis attorney. "That’s extremely refreshing. It’s a lot of fun."

And it IS fun. Players scratch the ears of Blue II, their 60-plund bulldog mascot, before introductions — and the dog is a popular draw of its own this week. Coach Brad Stevens is getting notes from friends urging "Ollie" — that’s the pint-sized kid in "Hoosiers" — to keep winning.

All week strangers have been snapping pictures of Hinkle Fieldhouse, the venerable home of the Bulldogs. Sixty-year-old Billy Shepherd, the Bulldogs’ career scoring leader, thrilled onlookers one day by making five straight 3-pointers.

"It’s hard to not jump on and follow a team that’s doing pretty well," Butler center Matt Howard said. "I think that’s sort of human nature, and I can’t say that I’m innocent of doing that before. But it’s been awesome and a lot of these people are people that I’ve seen before, they’re just showing it a little bit more."

Tickets for Saturday’s game are in high demand, but the long-term implications may be a bigger boon for the 4,500-student school.

Butler’s average attendance for men’s basketball games this season was 6,852, more than 3,000 short of Hinkle’s capacity. Mike Freeman, associate athletic director for external operations, said more fans are expressing interest in buying season tickets and he believes donations will increase.

"Fundraising has been on an incline over the last three years, and this will not hurt it," he said.

But winning a national title, in their hometown, will do more than bring money and fame. It would give Butler a special place in Hoosier history and, perhaps, a ready-to-make movie script.

"Those guys in the movie, they played together," guard Ronald Nored said, referring to "Hoosiers." "They had some tough times at the beginning of the season and they overcame them. They were tougher because of them. I think we’re tougher because of some of the losses we took earlier. We rallied around each other and stuck together, just like you saw in the movie."

-- Michael Marot

Despite injuries, Spartans return to Final Four

INDIANAPOLIS — The starting point guard, who also happens to lead the team in scoring and assists, is on the bench with a blown-out Achilles. Another starter is playing on a torn meniscus, which causes such excruciating pain "it feels like somebody is doing surgery on it." Yet another key player has a bum foot.

With apologies to hometown favorite Butler, Michigan State might be the most unlikely team here. One major injury is usually enough to derail a team come NCAA tournament time. Three? You’re better served planning some quality time on the couch rather than a trip to the Final Four.

"Of course you’d be surprised," Draymond Green said Thursday. "That’s a lot."

The Spartans (28-8) look more like a M-A-S-H unit than a national title contender, have gone through 19 — and counting — different lineups and are relying on a point guard who has started all of six games, two of which were last weekend. Yet here they are, in their sixth Final Four in the last 12 years and the only team from last year making a repeat appearance.

The Spartans play Butler (32-4) Saturday night in the first semifinal.

"I can’t even fathom that," Butler coach Brad Stevens said Thursday. "What a great job by them."

After losing to North Carolina in last year’s title game, Michigan State began the year ranked No. 2, a spot coach Tom Izzo thought a tad lofty considering the Spartans had lost Travis Walton, the Big Ten defensive player of the year, and Goran Suton, a member of the Final Four all-tournament team. Michigan State rolled early, losing just three games — one to then-No. 2 Texas and another to then-No. 10 North Carolina — through the end of January.

But this wasn’t the typical Spartan team that steamrolls its way into the NCAA tournament with defense and disciplined players.

Izzo kicked Kalin Lucas, the 2009 Big Ten player of the year, out of practice. He suspended Korie Lucious from a February game at Penn State. And he benched Durrell Summers, perhaps the most talented of the Spartans, for long stretches at a time.

Then Lucas sprained his ankle Feb. 2 at Wisconsin, a game the Spartans lost — badly. Lucious, Lucas’ backup, admits he wasn’t ready for the responsibility, and the Spartans lost their next game at Illinois. Lucas returned against Purdue, but the Spartans still lost their third straight.

Michigan State pulled it together enough to repeat as Big Ten champions, sharing the title with Ohio State and Purdue. But unlike the gritty group that willed its way into last year’s title game, the Spartans didn’t look like they were long for the NCAA tournament.

Until that second-round game against Maryland, when Lucas tore his left Achilles late in the first half.

After the Spartans got through that game — winning with a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Lucious — they called a players-only meeting. Some players vented about their teammates, others about their own issues.

"Whatever it was, everybody in the room spoke up and got it out on the table," Raymar Morgan said. "From then on, the team made a commitment to commit to basketball and basketball only."

Not that it was that easy.

The Spartans won their first four games by a whopping 13 points — total. That’s the lowest margin for a Final Four team since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Chris Allen, the team’s best 3-point shooter, is playing with an injured arch in his right foot and has made just two 3s in the first four games.

Then there’s Delvon Roe.

Roe has a torn meniscus in his right knee, but decided to keep playing rather than having surgery. Anytime he can practice is a gift, and he plays with the knee heavily taped and in a brace. Yet he’s still managing five points, four rebounds and almost 23 minutes in the NCAA tournament.

"Some days it feels it’s pretty good, some days it feels like somebody is doing surgery on it while I’m playing," Roe said. "The longer I play, the more pain it causes. But the longer I sit, the more stiff it gets. So it’s a lose-lose situation.

"I don’t think it’s heroic," added Roe, whom Izzo has called "a warrior. "It just shows how much the game means to me and how much winning is worth."

And winning, particularly this time of year, is all that matters.

After that blowout by North Carolina in last year’s title game, Green reminded his teammates that the Tar Heels had been similarly embarrassed the year before by Kansas. Now they were cutting down the nets.

That kind of rebound has been Michigan State’s goal all year, and injuries don’t change that.

"That’s what survival is all about," Izzo said. "You do more than somebody else is willing to do."

-- Nancy Armour

Duke players learn to live with being a target

INDIANAPOLIS — Lance Thomas never enjoyed being the bad guy. But he understood that playing at Duke meant getting used to it.

"You have to be able to play with a target on your back," Thomas said.

Duke’s senior class never really grew comfortable with their program’s position as one of the villains of college basketball. But as badly as these Blue Devils want to be embraced, they understand they’ll always be the team so many fans love to hate.

In a Final Four field full of teams that weren’t supposed to be here, one program that’s seemingly always here threatens to overshadow them: The big, bad Blue Devils (33-5) are in the national semifinals for the 11th time under coach Mike Krzyzewski and are preparing to face West Virginia (31-6) on Saturday night.

"There are a number of programs that have that, and I think youngsters who come into the program have to know, and I think it’s exciting for them to know, that every game they play will be an exciting one," Krzyzewski said Thursday. "There usually aren’t going to be any empty seats when you’re playing, and you’re going to be watched a lot. And as a result of being watched a lot, there are going to be people who really want you to win, and really want you to lose."

One former Duke hater now wears the uniform with pride. Senior Jon Scheyer admitted that as a student in a suburban Chicago junior high school, he briefly shed his allegiance to the Blue Devils and pulled for Seton Hall before growing out of that phase.

"Rooting against Duke is out of respect of how they win all the time and how good they were," Scheyer said. Then, he added with a smile: "I found my way."

But it wasn’t always a laughing matter for current seniors Scheyer, Thomas and Brian Zoubek.

It seemed to start during their first NCAA tournament appearance, a first-round upset in 2007 in which the biggest cheers seemed to come not because Virginia Commonwealth won but because Duke lost. In admitting then that the frosty reception bothered him, Thomas said: "I’ve never been that hated before."

"It really bothered me," Thomas said Thursday. "Just to see how you have to mentally prepare and physically prepare for a team. ... Every team we play is going to try to take our head off — even with the year we had our freshman year, when it was every team’s day in the sun when they played us."

For several reasons, these current Blue Devils are cuddlier than their predecessors, many of whom seemed to take particular delight in the villain’s role. Unlike past Duke teams with antagonists like Christian Laettner and J.J. Redick on the roster, this team lacks those lightning-rod personalities.

"You don’t have the same guys — Jeter’s not coming back every year for us," Krzyzewski said, referring to the New York Yankees’ shortstop. "The young guys coming in have to try to understand that."

Something else those Duke teams had in common: They won with amazing frequency.

The Blue Devils claimed three national titles and reached 10 Final Fours from 1986-2004. Then came what counts as a postseason lull in Krzyzewskiville: In the five years after that, they lost three times in the regional semifinals and in the other years didn’t even survive the opening weekend.

"People don’t stop coming at you just because you lost a couple times," Scheyer said. "Beating Duke is a big thing."

And yet, certain incidents seem to crystallize why some people just don’t like them.

Late in the South Regional final against Baylor, Scheyer swung his elbows near LaceDarius Dunn while calling a timeout. The Bears’ Quincy Acy intervened and got a technical foul. That came after a questionable charge called on Acy that could have been Zoubek’s fifth foul, leading to a fresh round of complaints that Duke gets all the calls.

Maybe that’s why, when Zoubek is asked about the intense feelings his program always seems to generate, he manages a halfhearted smile.

"I’ve dealt with that my whole four years here," Zoubek said. "Why would I expect it to change at the end of my senior year?"

-- Joedy McCreary

Real "Hoosiers" hero embraces Butler connection

INDIANAPOLIS — Bobby Plump settled in at a table in the family restaurant and began spinning the tale of his childhood, the one everyone loves. The one he loves.

As fans in nearby seats stopped eating and leaned in close to hear the details, Plump patiently described his buzzer-beating jumper in the 1954 Indiana state championship game. The shot that led to "Hoosiers" and the shot that has thrust him, willingly, into a role as Indiana’s ambassador for its beloved basketball and his alma mater, Butler.

The 73-year-old Plump smiles often, occasionally bellowing in laughter at details as he describes Milan High’s historic win over Muncie Central as though it happened yesterday. He takes about five minutes to describe 18 seconds. Patrons young and old nod in approval.

People have been waiting in line at "Plump’s Last Shot" all week to talk with the owner, to get his autograph, hear his voice. And Plump? He may have been waiting all his life for this — who wouldn’t love a chance to relive a glorious piece of your past?

"I’ve been weary after these things," Plump says. "It’s so much fun, and I enjoy it, but I tell you what. It does make you tired."

He’s made numerous appearances, including some at Hinkle Fieldhouse (site of that 1954 game), and his interview schedule has been daunting. He’s opened his restaurant three hours early. Plump said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has invited Plump and his eight living Milan teammates to watch Saturday’s game with him in a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Everyone remembers Plump’s famous high school shot. More and more are remembering that he was a star at Butler, which is in the Final Four and will play Michigan State on Saturday night.

Plump was an all-conference guard and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame. He remains close to the program and likes the fact that people can tie Butler and the man who made the dream shot.

"It’s very satisfying for Butler to get the recognition it deserves, and I appreciate finally being connected with the Bulldogs," he said.

As Plump addressed his patient fans Thursday, he starts a conversation with Dick Kuchen, former coach at California and Yale. Tall and sophisticated, Kuchen’s eyes sparkle like a small child’s as he talks to Plump.

"Every summer I ran a basketball camp, and the movie I ran for every camper that came in there was ‘Hoosiers,"’ he said. "I just think it’s a great story, and he wears it well."

Bob Brown of Danbury, Conn., isn’t a Butler fan — he backs Kansas — but he’ll cheer for the Bulldogs. He brought his two sons to the restaurant.

"When we decided to come to the Final Four, we said, ‘We’ve got to come to Plump’s Last Shot,"’ he said. "They like the whole story of Milan High School and of course, the movie. It’s just great history."

Plump said real parallels between Butler and Milan are few. He said Butler is a much better team and faces higher stakes.

"These kids are playing on an international stage," he said. "The pressure on them is much greater than us, and the only comparison is that we both had pretty good ballclubs."

Another difference is that Butler is the oddsmakers’ favorite against the Spartans.

"I’m a little disappointed in the bookies," he said. "Butler’s always an underdog and they made them the favorite," he said. "I’m superstitious. I wish they would have made them at least a one- or two-point dog."

As Plump tells the patrons about Milan, he seems to enjoy equally the chance to talk about the Bulldogs. He told one fan how much he respects coach Brad Stevens, and another that Butler would have been the favorite all along if the players had Duke across their chests.

Plump says the Bulldogs can win it all if they play they way they have throughout the NCAA tournament.

"I definitely think they can win it," he said. "If they have 80 minutes in them similar to the last two games, I truly believe we’ll be celebrating a championship here."

As he continues, he’s interrupted.

"Sorry, but these people have been waiting for a long time," the employee tells Plump.

So has Plump.

-- Cliff Brunt

NCAA mulling expansion to 96 teams

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA appears to be on the verge of expanding the men’s basketball tournament to 96 teams.

Insisting that nothing has been decided, NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen nonetheless outlined a detailed plan Thursday that included the logistics and timing of a 96-team tournament, how much time off the players would have and even revenue distribution.

Shaheen said the NCAA looked at keeping the current 65-team field and expanding to 68 or 80 teams, but decided the bigger bracket was best fit logistically and financially.

It would be played during the same time frame as the current three-week tournament and include first-round byes for 32 teams.

Although the plan still needs to be approved by the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and passed on to the board of directors, most of the details already seem to be in place.

"We needed to make sure that we did everything possible to use the due diligence window to understand ourselves and understand what the future would hold," Shaheen said. "So that’s what we’re doing, that’s the process we’re undertaking. We’ve been handling it every day for the last several months and years, as we studied for the benefit of the organization."

The men’s tournament last expanded in 2001, adding one team to the 64-team field that was set in 1985.

The 96-team tournament would likely envelop the 32-team NIT, though Shaheen said no decision has been made on what to do with the NCAA’s other, independently operated season-ending tournament.

The new format would start two days later than the current 65-team field because it would eliminate the Tuesday play-in game and would conclude on the same day, a Monday. It would be played at one fewer venue — again, the play-in game — and the NCAA says it would include no additional travel time for teams.

The first-round games for the 64 non-bye teams would take place on Thursday and Friday, with the winners playing the top eight seeds in each region on Saturday and Sunday. Winners on Saturday would likely play again on Tuesday, and the Sunday winners on Wednesday.

Those winners would then move on to the regionals, playing alternate days starting on Thursday. Shaheen said the NCAA hasn’t decided on whether to keep the same sites for second and first-round games or to make the midweek sites the same as the regionals.

He also said the amount of time student-athletes would be out of school would be roughly the same as the current model, but teams that play in the opening round and keep winning would actually be out an entire week of school instead of just a few days.

"On a 96-team basis — vs. the current 97 teams that the NCAA conducts through the championship and the NIT, for example — you have, on a side-by-side basis, a reduction in the travel time," Shaheen said.

Adding teams to the NCAA tournament could create some monumentally lopsided games, or seeds in the 30s and 90s playing each other. There might be less importance on the regular season and conference tournaments; the resume wouldn’t need to be padded so much if more teams get in.

"I don’t see any watering down at all," Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. "I think there are a number of teams playing in the NIT that could have gotten in, and I think there will be more people and more excitement with more teams in."

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he would like to see regular-season and conference tournament champions get automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.

"The regular season would mean something," he said. "There would still be bubble teams and all that, but we would reward those teams accordingly. And I would still like the conference tournament champions. They make a lot of money and celebrate each conference. I think it’s a way of each conference celebrating their conference, which is a good thing."

Any plans to expand the tournament hinge on the NCAA’s $6 billion television deal with CBS.

The 11-year deal, signed in 1999, has a mutual opt-out until July 31. The NCAA has already spoken with numerous networks about expansion, so the opt-out is at least on the table, and adding 32 more teams is certainly going to bring in more revenue.

The proposal is strictly for the men’s tournament. Another NCAA committee is looking at whether to expand the women’s tournament or keep it in the current format.

-- John Marshall

Commentary: ’If it doesn’t hurt, you haven’t done enough.’

INDIANAPOLIS — The best coach in college basketball doesn’t bother with formulas.

One ingredient is all Tom Izzo needs.

"If it doesn’t hurt, if it isn’t painful to go through a practice, you haven’t done enough. You’re not going to this level. You’re going to win your 20 games," he said. "Big deal."

Desire isn’t the only reason Izzo is back at the Final Four for the sixth time in the last dozen seasons. Every coach wants to win just as bad, and more than a few are just as intense. Izzo’s genius is teaching every kid who signs on at Michigan State — one class at a time — to want it more than they could have imagined.

It’s not an accident the Spartans have won their four NCAA tournament games by a combined 13 points. Last Sunday, they came out a step slow against a hot-shooting Tennessee team and — this is classic Izzo — he started looking for someone to take responsibility. He settled on sophomore Draymond Green.

Words were exchanged, then glares. Finally, Izzo began ignoring him. By the time Green reached the sideline during the first time-out, he was steamed. Izzo wouldn’t so much as look at him, so it fell to his assistants to calm the kid down.

"It was brought up in the huddle, and he says, ‘OK, I made one mistake. Aren’t I allowed?"’ Izzo recalled in front of a room full of reporters Thursday. "And I said, ‘No, not at this time of year, or you’ll be over there sitting with the media guys.’

"No insult to you guys," Izzo chuckled, "but that’s what I told him."

Thinking back on that episode, Green, who set up the game-winning play, would have been surprised if Izzo had acted any other way.

"Our relationship is: you go at me; I can go at you. But once it’s all said and done, we know we’re all on the same page, going for the same goal. Once we did that, everything started clicking," he said. "I went back in and played harder, and I think that’s his way of getting me going if I’m not going.

"So," Green added, "I think it always works out for the better."

With four days to reflect, Izzo softened only so much.

"Draymond was right and wrong. Yeah, you should be able to make a mistake," he said. "Just not in this tournament, because it’s one-and-done."

Izzo understands one-and-done because, like many of the kids who come to East Lansing, Mich., to play for him, he learned early on you only get so many chances. He grew up in a town of 15,000 that sits hard by the mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Menominee Iron Range. His great-grandfather was a miner, his grandfather a shoemaker and his father a handyman.

His best friend in high school was Steve Mariucci, who went on to coach the NFL’s 49ers and Lions and now works as a TV analyst. Together they took Iron Mountain High to a regional final as juniors. But with their team trailing by one point and no time on the clock, Izzo missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

He still shoots 100 free throws in practice every day to remind himself not to let another opportunity slip through his fingers. Woe unto the player who doesn’t figure that out fast enough.

Last season, in the midst of a magical run that carried the Spartans to nearby Detroit for the Final Four, senior Travis Walton talked about what it was like to bear the brunt of Izzo’s tough love for four years.

"He probably wants more for me than I want for myself," Walton said finally. "I love him. I’m pretty sure he loves me the same."

That much is affirmed to every one of his charges nearly every season, when Izzo’s name is mentioned for vacant major college or NBA coaching jobs, and he says one more time he isn’t going anywhere.

Soon after Izzo settled into mentor Jud Heathcote’s office on the MSU campus 15 years ago, it became clear he was that rare talent who could take any team to just about every Final Four. That he committed to building a program that would rival North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky without wandering too far from home is a lesson in loyalty that’s impossible to miss.

As the Spartans were getting blown out of last year’s championship game by eventual winner North Carolina, Izzo began wondering what he was going to say to his charges afterward. He started working on his speech right about the time the Tar Heels’ Wayne Ellington drained a jump shot in front of his bench.

"I said, ‘Damn, we’re in trouble,"’ Izzo said. "So I had a long time to think about what I wanted to say. That was three minutes into the game, and I had 37 minutes to think about it — and the whole postgame, too.

"I wanted to say something good and I was so proud of those guys and yet I felt so bad that we didn’t give them a game. That’s when Draymond raised his hand."

Green picked up the story from there.

"I said, ‘A year ago, North Carolina was in the same position we were, and they came back," he recalled. "‘Why can’t we do the same thing?"’

Don’t bet against these Spartans doing exactly that.

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.

Notebook: Butler coach mistaken for player

INDIANAPOLIS — Hollywood celebrities would pay good money and lots of it to have Brad Stevens’ problem.

A security guard mistook Butler’s boyish-looking coach for one of his players Thursday when the Bulldogs arrived at Lucas Oil Stadium for practice.

"It’s the first time that’s happened in probably two years," Stevens said. "I don’t mind it happening at all. It makes me feel good."

At 33, Stevens is one of the younger coaches in the country, and certainly one of the youngest to ever take a team to the Final Four. Mike Krzyzewski, Bob Huggins and Tom Izzo, his three counterparts in Indianapolis this weekend, all have at least 20 years on him.

When Izzo and Michigan State won the national title here in 2000, Stevens was a year out of college and working down the street for Eli Lilly.

Since the NCAA started keeping thorough records in 1972, only Bob Knight was younger when he brought his Indiana team to the Final Four in 1973. Before that, Ray Meyer was 29 when he took DePaul to the Final Four in 1943, and Branch McCracken was 31 when he took Indiana in 1940.

Butler (32-4) plays Michigan State (28-8) in the first semifinal Saturday night.

Stevens doesn’t make a big deal out of his age or his youthful appearance. But he doesn’t try to hide it, either. When the Bulldogs upset second-ranked Kansas State last weekend to reach the Final Four, Stevens celebrated by giving one of his players a high-flying chest bump.

And when he was asked about the security guard snub, Stevens just smiled.

"It’s obvious he didn’t see me shoot, handle (the ball) or run," he said. "Then he would have been like, ‘What are you doing here?"’

SUMMER SCHOOL: The National Association of Basketball Coaches put a new twist on an old issue: They want all Division I schools to pay for summer classes.

Tubby Smith and others acknowledged that some critics will see the push as an attempt to get more practice time with players. But executive director Jim Haney insists the real advantage would be helping students earn their degrees, thereby improving the school’s Academic Progress Rate and Graduation Success Rate, measures that determine how schools are performing in the classroom.

"It’s about more than becoming a better basketball player, it’s an opportunity to get better in the classroom," Haney said. "It’s the catalyst to graduation."

It also might be one of the biggest discrepancies in Division I athletics because some schools pick up the summer tab while others don’t. Haney said he has seen studies that show summer courses can have a significant impact on APR and GSR scores.

But what about the perception that coaches simply want more practice time with their players?

"I think it’s a unique time, without the pressure of the season, without the media there," former Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "So from a coaching perspective it might be looked at as we want more time for basketball, but what we really want is more time to help our young men."

HAMMING IT UP: So much for West Virginia feeling the increasing pressure that comes with deep tournament runs.

"It seems like the further we go, the more fun we have," forward Kevin Jones said. "We just enjoy each other’s company. This team’s chemistry is unlike any other team I’ve ever been around. We just kind of enjoy the moment, and when it’s time to be serious, we definitely are a serious team."

Some Mountaineers created quite the viral stir two weeks ago when videos posted on John Flowers’ Twitter page featured Da’Sean Butler, Jonnie West and Joe Mazzulla lip-synching and dancing to a Brian McKnight song.

They’ve come up with some more silly ones since then, including one in which Mazzulla plays Will Smith’s role in a spoof of the opening credits to the 1990s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," and another in which Butler slaps West with the ultimate insult — calling him a "jive turkey."

"I don’t know what a jive turkey is," Jones said with a laugh. "I think it was some slang from the ‘70s."

Those hotel-room hijinks have kept things loose as the Mountaineers (31-6) prepare for Duke (33-5) on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. When all of its 71,300 seats are filled, it will be significantly more populous than the largest city in West Virginia (Charleston, pop. 50,302).

"Riding up to it, it’s intimidating, because 70,000 people is kind of a ridiculous (number) to play in front of in college," senior Wellington Smith said. "So I’m just happy to be here, and I’m trying to take it in as it comes."

GRADING COACHES: The NCAA’s plan to start grading coaches isn’t exactly winning universal support.

National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director Jim Haney said his group believes the decision to come up with coaching Academic Progress Reports will come with built-in problems. The NCAA intends to measure the academic progress of players under each coach in Division I and could release the first batch of numbers this summer.

"I think our coaches have concerns about it because they’ll inherit programs with things that they have nothing to do with and yet it will impact their APRs," Haney said.

The NCAA believes using a cumulative formula to track coaches, even after their moves, will help recruits make more informed decisions about which school they want to attend based on academics.

But how fair is it to the coaches?

"I don’t think you’ll find a coach in college basketball that doesn’t want an athlete to graduate and be successful," former Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "But I think it really starts with the foundation in high school. When we get them, I think we do a pretty good job."

COFFEE KLATCH: Louisville coach Rick Pitino was in Indianapolis on a recruiting trip recently when he turned around and recognized Butler coach Brad Stevens in line behind him.

Pitino told the barista he’d pay for whatever Stevens ordered and the two coaches made small talk before heading back to the nearby gym where an AAU tournament was being held.

A month later Pitino found a note on his desk. Inside was a gift card from Starbucks with a brief note of thanks from Stevens.

"Now I’ve got to send him something back," Pitino said. "He’s a great guy."

FILM BUFF: Shelvin Mack has watched plenty of film since getting to Butler. But it’s the one he hasn’t seen that is the most interesting.

The sophomore has yet to see "Hoosiers," the movie that immortalized Indiana basketball and made a star out of Hinkle Fieldhouse, Butler’s gym.

"I was supposed to watch it this summer," Mack said.

Instead, he spent his summer playing on the U.S. team for the U-19 world championships.

The Bulldogs have been asked about "Hoosiers" oh, about a million times since reaching the Final Four. You know, plucky Indiana boys make good, small-school team taking on the big boys. The movie is based on tiny Milan High, which beat Muncie Central to win the 1954 Indiana state title. Bobby Plump, who hit the game-winning jumper, went on to play at Butler.

Butler is no Hollywood fluff, however. The Bulldogs knocked off top-seeded Syracuse and No. 2 seed Kansas State to get back home for the Final Four.

"It’s fine with me," Stevens said of the comparisons. "I think it’s nothing but positive."

Mack will have to take his word for it.

"All I know is Bobby Plump hit the shot," Mack said.

MAYOR OF MORGANTOWN? The worst thing about being friends with Da’Sean Butler, Wellington Smith says, is that everyone else in Morgantown seems to know him, too.

Such is life for Butler, who hit six game-winning shots this season.

"I hate walking around campus with him, just because everybody stops and starts talking with him," Smith said with a smile. "I’m just like that lone guy. I’m like, ‘I’ll see you later."’

West Virginia’s Bryant unlikely to play

INDIANAPOLIS — West Virginia coach Bob Huggins says it’s "highly unlikely" point guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant will be able to play Saturday’s Final Four game against Duke.

The sophomore had hoped a specially-designed shoe would ease some of the pain in his broken right foot. But in a news conference Thursday, Huggins said he would be shocked if Bryant played.

Bryant broke his foot in practice on March 23 and missed the Mountaineers’ next NCAA two tournament games. He flew to Durham, N.C., on Sunday and received a special insert for his shoe from a Duke sports medicine doctor but hasn’t been able to practice.

Joe Mazzulla started in Bryant’s place in the East Regional final against Kentucky and scored a career-high 17 points in West Virginia’s 73-66 victory.

NIT

Dayton wins NIT, beats North Carolina 79-68

NEW YORK — Dayton players danced at midcourt and then lingered on ladders as they cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden.

Forgive these Flyers for taking a little extra time to soak it all in. They’re not as accustomed to trophy ceremonies as the North Carolina team they had just beaten.

Marcus Johnson scored 20 points and Dayton denied last year’s national champs another title, topping the Tar Heels 79-68 Thursday night to win the NIT.

"This game kind of is a capsule of our season," coach Brian Gregory said. "Started off great, had some tough times and then just kind of fight through, and ended up very successful at the end."

Relying on depth, defense and some clutch 3-point shooting, the Flyers took home their first title in 42 years and handed North Carolina one more disheartening loss at the end of a lousy season.

"It’s a tough feeling right now, there’s no question about that. It’s been an unusual year for North Carolina basketball," coach Roy Williams said, his eyes red and puffy as he spoke about his seniors. "I’ve lived a charmed life in the past, and this has been a little tougher. I’m so proud of our guys for coming to play in this National Invitation Tournament and playing so well up until today and getting us to this point. We just didn’t finish the job."

Reserve guard Paul Williams added 16 points for No. 3 seed Dayton (25-12), which bounced back from a disappointing regular season of its own to win its third NIT title and first since 1968 under coach Don Donoher.

Picked to win the Atlantic 10 Conference, the athletic and experienced Flyers faded late and missed the NCAA tournament before turning things around and finishing on a high note.

"We struggled through the season. But being in the NIT, we stayed positive and we showed we have heart and character," said Chris Johnson, selected the tournament’s most outstanding player. "It shows today that we are a good team. We just won a championship."

Will Graves shot North Carolina back into the game in the second half, finishing with seven 3-pointers and 25 points for the fourth-seeded Tar Heels (20-17), who started the season hoping for back-to-back NCAA crowns.

Chris Wright had 14 points for the Flyers, as did Chris Johnson — who scored 22 in a semifinal victory over Mississippi.

Including the Rebels and Tar Heels, Dayton beat four teams from BCS conferences en route to the championship. Cincinnati and Illinois were the others.

"Love their intensity and enthusiasm and how hard they have played," Roy Williams said. "We have had teams like that in the past that have played really, really hard, and very talented. Also, I think we started playing hard once we got in this NIT."

The Tar Heels fell short in their attempt to grab a somewhat dubious piece of college basketball history. A victory Thursday night would have made them the first team to follow up an NCAA national championship with a NIT crown the next year.

With officials discussing expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 teams as soon as next year, this could be the last NIT, an event with a rich history that dates to 1938.

NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen said Thursday no decision has been made about the future of the postseason NIT, which is operated independently by the NCAA.

"Might be a fitting way to end it, for us to win it," Gregory said.

How down-and-out were these Tar Heels heading into the postseason? When the 32-team NIT draw was announced, they opened at 35-1 odds to win the title.

And while Dayton has been a regular in this event, it was strange to see North Carolina on the college basketball undercard this time of year. One of the sport’s true heavyweights, the Tar Heels own five NCAA national championships, including an 89-72 victory over Michigan State in last year’s title game.

Tom Izzo and the Spartans are back in the Final Four, set to play Butler in Indianapolis on Saturday. North Carolina was left to chase a consolation prize following a 16-16 regular season wrecked by injuries, leaky defense and a string of embarrassing losses.

The blue bloods from Tobacco Road still have one NIT title, which came in 1971.

Every time North Carolina got close in the second half, Dayton had a response.

Tar Heels guard Marcus Ginyard missed a contested layup that could have tied it at 59, and Paul Williams hit one of his four 3s on the other end with 7:46 left.

A 3-pointer by Graves cut UNC’s deficit to 67-63 with 3:37 remaining, but Chris Johnson countered with a 3 of his own and a follow-up dunk to put Dayton up by nine with 2:50 to go.

North Carolina, which committed 15 turnovers, never got closer than five the rest of the way.

"Our guys played with great toughness and desire," Gregory said. "We answered everything they threw at us."

This was Dayton’s 22nd appearance in the NIT, second only to St. John’s (27). The Flyers also won it in 1962.

-- Mike Fitzpatrick