Duke 85, Temple 64
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- If Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was hoping defensive-minded Temple would give him a few hints on how to handle No. 1 Duke in the Final Four next weekend, he can forget it.The sixth-seeded Owls not only failed to get John Chaney to his first Final Four in 27 years of coaching, they struggled as much as everybody else this season against Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils in losing the East Regional final 85-64 Sunday.
Duke (36-1) will take a school-record 31 game winning streak into the national semifinal at St. Petersburg, Fla., against No. 2 Michigan State on Saturday. The Spartans defeated defending champion Kentucky 73-66 in winning the Midwest Regional and earning their first Final Four berth since 1979, when Magic Johnson led them to the title.
Duke and Michigan State (33-4) played in December, with the Blue Devils winning 73-67.
However, Coach K has his team on a roll, winning 11 of their last 13 games by 20 or more points. The other two wins were by margins of 15 and 17 points.
"Duke has 10 great players, not two or three," Temple point guard Pepe Sanchez said. "When you face a traditional college team, they have one, two or three great players at most."
Temple had hoped its aggressive 2-3 matchup zone, which had not allowed more than 55 points in any of three tournament games, would prevent Duke from reaching its 12th Final Four, its eighth under Krzyzewski and first since 1994.
The plan was to pack the defense inside against Duke center Elton Brand and to dare either Trajan Langdon or anybody else to beat them over the top.
Langdon did just that in scoring 23 points. He hit 6 of 7 shots from the field, including his first five 3-pointers. That forced Temple (24-11) to extend its zone and opened things up for everyone else, especially Brand, who had 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting.
"Against Duke, we knew Langdon was going to hit shots, you just didn't know how well," Chaney said after losing his fourth regional final, his third at the Continental Airlines Arena. "He was coming off screens, turning and shooting over a 6-foot-10 player and that just doesn't happen that often. We just didn't know how well he was going to do it."
The loss was the worst of the season for Temple, which got 19 points apiece from Mark Karcher and Lamont Barnes. The 85 points were the most given up by the Owls in 34 NCAA tournament games under their 67-year-old coach.
After falling behind early, Langdon ignited a 17-2 spurt by hitting four straight shots, including three straight 3-pointers.
"Give Temple credit. Early they made it an ugly game. We couldn't get any penetration and I couldn't get the ball on the side," Langdon said. "Then I got some looks, the first one went down and every time I got a look I felt good releasing it. I think my teammates knew I was feeling it."
Duke is now two wins away from capturing its third national title this decade, a crown most experts conceded to it months ago.
"You don't get a chance to play for the national championship until you get to the Final Four," Krzyzewski said. "Now we can talk about winning the national championship."
Duke won national titles under Krzyzewski in 1991 and '92. The Blue Devils won in '91 by pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history, knocking off prohibitive favorite UNLV in the semifinals before beating Kansas for the championship.
Temple guard Rasheed Brokenborough said anyone playing Duke needs to concentrate on stopping Brand and Langdon.
"You can't stop all of them, and that's what we tried to do," he said.