NCAA Final Four Preview: Kentucky Heads a Familiar Four - New York Times

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Clockwise, from top left, Kentucky, Michigan State, Duke and Wisconsin are all familiar faces in the N.C.A.A. tournament’s Final Four. Credit Clockwise, from top left: David Richard/Associated Press; Richard Barnes/USA Today Sports, via Reuters; Jae C. Hong/Associated Press; David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Call it the Familiar Four.

We started with 68 teams, from Northern Florida to Eastern Washington. But the four that remain have the comfortable feeling of old gym shoes. It’s a bit like a baseball playoff with the Braves, the Cardinals, the Red Sox and the Yankees. Well, maybe not the Yankees.

All four of this year’s surviving teams have already made Final Four appearances in this short decade, and two have won a championship in that time. Three of the four were No. 1 seeds and favored to make it this far.

As it is in so many ways, Kentucky is the standout, heading to its fourth Final Four in five years. Wisconsin returns as well, after a national semifinal appearance last year (and it beat the same opponent, Arizona, to get there).

Duke is back for the first time since its 2010 title. But with 12 round-of-16 appearances in the last 15 years and 12 Final Four berths in the Mike Krzyzewski era, it is hardly an exotic face.

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Michigan State, the only non-No. 1 seed to make it this year, cannot be considered an interloper, either, not with its history of tournament overachievement. Its last visit to the Final Four was in 2010, as a fifth seed. Last year it made the round of 8 as a fourth seed.

Though the teams and coaches were predictable, the cast of characters on the court is largely new, as has come to be common in 21st century college basketball.

Of the seven Kentucky Wildcats who played at least 10 minutes Saturday, only two, the Harrison twins, played in last year’s national championship game. They are joined by four freshmen and the junior Willie Cauley-Stein, who missed that final with an injury.

But that inexperienced group is still the big favorite in Indianapolis despite a scare against Notre Dame in the round of 8 Saturday. Kentucky was outplayed for much of that game, and had Notre Dame not made a hash of its final possessions, the Irish might have been in the Final Four for the first time since 1978.

Kentucky will face Wisconsin, which is that rare bird, a veteran-led Final Four team. Frank Kaminsky, a senior, was predictably strong in the victory over Arizona, but so was the junior Sam Dekker, who shot 8 for 11 and scored 27 points. Wisconsin did not play a freshman for even a minute.

Though many expect that semifinal to produce the eventual national champion, Duke looks dangerous in the other half of the bracket after
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NCAA Final Four Preview: Kentucky Heads a Familiar Four - New York Times