MINNEAPOLIS — A warning to anyone who cried when Jim Valvano won, cheered when Villanova stunned Georgetown or felt warm and fuzzy when Danny Manning led Kansas to its improbable title: This is not your Final Four.
Those who embrace lovable underdogs have no team to call their own in Minneapolis this week.
This year's gathering is for Duke, Maryland, Michigan State and Arizona — four big-name teams from big-name conferences with low seeds and star players. All four spent good portions of the season at or near the top of the polls.
"Not only do we have four really good teams, but we have four teams who are playing their best basketball right now," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That doesn't usually happen at the Final Four."
The Duke-Maryland semifinal Saturday is the fourth meeting between Atlantic Coast Conference rivals who have already played two of the most entertaining games of the season. The Arizona-Michigan State meeting is a pick 'em contest between the defending national champion and the preseason No. 1.
Just ask Illinois coach Bill Self, whose team played all four.
"Three of the four teams may have the best offensive firepower in the tournament," said Self, speaking of Arizona, Duke and Maryland. '
Defending champion Michigan State (28-4) made it despite the loss of Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and A.J. Granger from last year's championship team.
Arizona (27-7) also went through tough times, slipping to 8-5 in January and stumbling from suspensions and the death of coach Lute Olson's wife.
More recently, the Wildcats have looked like the preseason No. 1 team. Since Olson returned from a two-week absence, the Wildcats have gone 17-2.
If there's any semblance of an underdog here, it's Maryland (25-10), a 97-year-old program making its first Final Four appearance. The Terrapins lost five of six in midseason after blowing a 10-point lead in the final 54 seconds against Duke and seemed in jeopardy of missing the tournament.