ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The first time was early December in Chicago, two of the top teams in the country meeting in the Great Eight.
The second time will be late March in St. Petersburg, two of the top teams in the country meeting in the Final Four.The game today between top-ranked Duke and Michigan State is far more important, of course. And this time the winner gets to play for the national championship on Monday night.
That first game, won by Duke 73-67, won't have much bearing on the rematch, the players and coaches said. But they did spend a lot of time talking about it Friday.
"I think Michigan State's a lot different, and I think we are, too," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has the Blue Devils (36-1) in the Final Four for the eighth time since 1986. "They know each other even better. They seem to be very healthy and have a deep rotation with eight or nine guys. So I think they use their people better now than they did earlier, and so do we."
That game was the first of Duke's school-record 31 straight wins. Michigan State (33-4) lost its next game to then-No. 1 Connecticut and has won 29 of 30 since, including the last 22.
"We were a totally different team back them," Spartans junior forward A.J. Granger said. "We've matured along the way and so have they. I would say the maturity is going to play a big part in the game, and we've come a long way in that department."
In the first game in the United Center, Duke took a 17-2 lead as Trajan Langdon hit two 3-pointers and a free throw in the opening four minutes. Langdon finished with 23 points on 7-for-12 shooting, 4-of-7 beyond the arc.
"I think my teammates did a great job setting screens, and Will Avery did a great job getting me the ball in my rhythm," said Langdon, a second-team All-America who had 47 points in the last two NCAA tournament games on 9-for-12 from 3-point range. "It just felt good in Chicago that night. I had a variety of different people on me. It wasn't that they did a bad job, just my teammates did a great job of getting me the ball."
Mateen Cleaves, Michigan State's first-team All-America, had a bad night in the first meeting, going 3-for-17 from the field with nine points and six assists.
"I don't even think about that last game. I try to get that game out of my head," said Cleaves, who has averaged 11.3 points and 7.0 assists while keeping up his tough defense in the NCAA tournament. "I'm really not going out there to play for payback or that I have to prove to somebody that I can shoot better against Duke.
"My thing is I have to concentrate on doing a better job for my team," he said. "I didn't do a good job with my team then, my shooting. . . . This time I have to do a better job of running my team."
Both teams are better than they were in December and history becomes a fading factor in an event like the Final Four. Still, reality is reality.
Coach Tom Izzo, who has the Spartans in the Final Four for the first time since 1979, was asked if he has found a flaw in Duke.
"I guess if you have to really search and search and search, there's no backup point guard for Avery if he gets in foul trouble, and that could be a problem," he said.