Fee Final Four Fum--Is Giant Looking Glum?

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —  What do you know? The giant has a soft spot.

It’s not very big, and not very soft, but it’s there, the world saw it, the opponent felt it, about 40,000 folks wearing different colors stood together here Saturday night and cheered for it.

What was considered only a rumor before the Final Four is now as real as the frustration in Trajan Langdon’s eyes, the anger in Elton Brand’s voice, the furrows in Mike Krzyzewski’s face.

The most invincible-looking team in recent college basketball history has a bit of clay in its sneakers and doubt in its heart.

Duke can be beaten.

The nation’s top-ranked team defeated the nation’s second-ranked team at Tropicana Field on Saturday in the national semifinals--68-62 over Michigan State--but it wasn’t easy or lovely.

And it wasn’t Connecticut.

Three weeks ago, I was one of those office oddballs who picked Connecticut to win the national championship.

I’ll stand by that pick.

For 40 squeaking and slapping minutes Saturday, Michigan State applied the body shots.

On Monday, Connecticut has the ability to go for the head.

“You know, UConn will match up well with Duke. . . . They can do some things to them,” Spartan guard Thomas Kelley said.

Think about that.

Before Saturday, the Blue Devils had won their 36 games by an average margin of 25.9 points.

And now, some unknown guard from some little Michigan town is saying somebody can do something to them?

Of course they can. Because Michigan State did.

The Spartans showed you can cap the basket on Langdon--three for nine, seven points.

And you can somehow exhaust a decent foul-shooting team into missing nearly half of its free throws--13 of 27.

And if you fight hard enough, you can come within four rebounds of a team that averaged twice that margin during the season.

More than anything, Michigan State showed you can reach America’s smartest team in a place once thought impenetrable.

Inside its head.

“A couple of times in the huddle, the looks were really tense,” Duke forward Shane Battier acknowledged. “We had to remind ourselves, ‘Hey, this is basketball, this is fun.’ ”

For them, for the first time in two months, this game was anything but.

Several times, Michigan State was within one free throw, or one rebound, or one turnover of knocking the giant backward.

“We get a couple of breaks, and it’s a different game,” Kelley said.

In any other situation, those are so-what breaks, irrelevant in the wake of the final score.

But this about the giant, and even when he simply stumbles, the earth shakes.

It is upon that suddenly rolling ground that Monday’s championship will be built.

Says here, Connecticut by three.

“Sure, we can be beaten,” Battier said.

This first became clear Saturday when Michigan State pulled to within four points with 13:29 left in the game.

Langdon then whipped the ball to Brand, who spun around Mateen Cleaves and scored on a layup while being fouled. He made the free throw to stop the momentum.

“UConn needs some people to match up inside with Brand,” Michigan State’s A.J. Granger said.

What a coincidence. Connecticut has those people, in forward Kevin Freeman and center Jake Voskuhl.

Michigan State fought back to close to within three points with 8:33 left, shortly after Brand left with his fourth personal foul.

Then Langdon raced down the court and sank a three-point basket to reestablish a control that Duke never lost.

“That’s when I first realized that they weren’t going to panic, when Langdon came down and made that shot so quickly,” Granger said. “UConn has to get somebody on Langdon and shut him down like we did.”

You know the answer here. Connecticut has that somebody in defensive specialist Ricky Moore.

“We showed the world that if you play hard and don’t be timid, you can beat Duke,” Spartan Doug Davis said.

This is not to say that Duke didn’t show the world something as well.

“Everybody was talking about how we’ve never been in any close games,” said Chris Carrawell. “A lot of people thought we couldn’t play in a game like this. Well, we can.”

The thing is, Michigan State’s message was more important than Duke’s.

Win under adversity? We didn’t even know Duke could suffer adversity.

Was that really Langdon scolding William Avery on Saturday night after a broken play?

Was that really Brand hopping and pleading for a referee’s call that resulted in one of four Michigan State missed free throws down the stretch that could have changed the game?

And really, if Cleaves makes that three-point shot in the final 10 seconds, would Michigan State have really been within one possession of stunning the giant?

“It was a different feeling,” Battier said. “But at the same time, we weren’t as discombobulated like everyone thought we were.”

They weren’t as what? Leave it to the Dookies to send you to the dictionary.

For all their excitement, they play the game like they are taking a test.

They never smile. They never acknowledge their opponent. They treat the game like it is a piece of blank paper waiting to be filled with the right answers.

And fill it they do. Watching Duke can be awe-inspiring. But at times Saturday, it was also uncomfortable, like watching royalty stride to the end of a thick carpet, then trip.

Which brings us back to that spot. It’s not very big, and it’s not every soft. But Duke now knows it’s there. And Connecticut now knows exactly where to look.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].