Duke took the floor at the Charlotte Coliseum for Friday's Final Four practice to wild cheers. Florida walked out to a lot of quizzical looks.
That's to be expected when the national semifinals are being played in your home state and you have been there seven of the last nine years - like Duke.Florida, however, is making its first Final Four appearance, and the Gators are being given almost no chance of winning. The last teams to be given as little consideration for a win were eventual champion North Carolina State and Georgia in 1983.
"Duke sets the standard in college basketball, but it had to start sometime and we're trying to do that now," Florida guard Dan Cross said the day before today's semifinal matchup.
The Gators (29-7) certainly have the credentials to deserve some notice, winning the East Regional as the No. 3 seed. They tied with Kentucky as co-champions of one of the Southeastern Conference divisions and then lost to the Wildcats in the conference tournament championship game.
So it shouldn't have been that big a surprise the Gators are here.
"It was a surprise to varying degrees," coach Lon Kruger said. "People close to the program were probably less surprised than those on the outside."
No one should be surprised that Duke (27-5) is back.
"People used to call it the `Duke Invitational' and I know that upset a lot of people around here, but Coach keeps it in perspective," center Cherokee Parks said.
The Blue Devils had their run for a third straight national championship ended last year in the second round by California. That meant Grant Hill wouldn't play in four Final Fours as the previous two Duke senior classes had. He's back for a third and a shot at the same number of championship rings.
"We're not thinking about records, about what happened in the past," he said. "We're thinking about nothing but Florida."
That would mean thinking about guards Dan Cross and Craig Brown.
"Our backcourt has been consistent all year with leadership and offensively and defensively," Kruger said.
That's a far cry from how Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski described his team's backcourt, one buoyed by the play of freshman Jeff Capel in the tournament.
"I think we've been a good team without knowing who our guards were," he said. "Whenever I had a problem I would always turn to Grant in that position. With Jeff emerging like he has during the tournament we're changing a little bit. That's been a strength of our program that we're willing to change even in the tournament."
Capel had 19 points in the regional final win over Purdue, the game where Hill, Duke's leading scorer, showed why he is considered the best defensive player in the country. Glenn Robinson, the nation's leading scorer, had a season-low 13 points.
"He's a great player, but we've faced a lot of great players," Cross said. "We're going to do the same things we've done the other 35 games: play good defense and execute on offense."
Both teams are known for their defense, solid man-to-man with a lot of help.