DUKE & MICHIGAN STATE ADVANCE

FINAL FOUR FINALIZED IN NORTH CAROLINA

When Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski was asked Thursday where his top-seeded team ranked among the other Blue Devils squads that he had coached, he declined to speculate. But he did emphasize that he loved this team despite the fact that the senior class had not previously advanced beyond the Round of 16. “Not more than some of the teams, but as much because they’re more of an old-time team,” Krzyzewski said. “They’ve grown up together.” Although this team is hardly among Duke’s most talented and lacks a well-known star, it has Krzyzewski back in the Final Four for the first time since 2004 after the Blue Devils outlasted No. 3 seed Baylor, 78-71, on Sunday in the N.C.A.A. tournament’s South Regional final before 47,492 fans at Reliant Stadium. It will be Krzyzewski’s 11th trip to the Final Four and keeps him in the hunt for his first national title since 2001. “They got me to a Final Four, finally,” Krzyzewski said. A day after the scrappy midmajor Butler earned its first Final Four berth and West Virginia qualified for the national semifinals for the first time since 1959, Duke (33-5) was one of two familiar teams that joined the fray in Indianapolis on Sunday. Tom Izzo, deftly rotating players to compensate for injuries, guided Michigan State to its sixth Final Four in 12 years with a 70-69 victory against Tennessee. But Duke’s victory against an athletic Baylor team that had been a popular darkhorse pick to make the Final Four was the more impressive of the day. The junior shooting guard Nolan Smith had 29 points and the senior point guard Jon Scheyer added 20 points for the Blue Devils, who overcame poor shooting (36.1 percent) from the field. They will face second-seeded West Virginia (31-6) in the national semifinals Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (NY Times)