Battle Of The Blue Bloods In New Orleans

The Cinderella stories of the NCAA tournament are what make March Madness special. They’re the ones that we remember, as double-digit seeds seemingly appears out of midair, becoming celebrities overnight. 

But those stories also come to their inevitable end, when the power of the major conferences and top recruiting classes take over, ending the far-fetched dreams of a mid-major making it to the Final Four. 

We witnessed it over the weekend, as the Saint Peter’s Peacocks were overwhelmed against North Carolina in the Elite Eight. And college basketball fans everywhere should be grateful, because the 2022 Final Four in New Orleans is the best of the best vying for the national championship.

It’s exactly what we should all want. The best teams, from the best conferences, filled with the best talent facing off to determine the best team in college basketball. 

It’s the blue-blood Final Four, and man, do we have some storylines. 

Let’s start with the obvious. 

This is the 13th and Final Four for Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, as he rides off into the sunset after the season. Don’t be fooled, this Final Four will be all about Coach K, as every other coach and player will be asked about his legacy. And rightly so. 

Krzyzewski, who turned 75 in February, has won five national titles at Duke and led the U.S. men’s basketball team to three olympic gold medals. His 1,202 victories make him the winningest Division I coach in men’s college basketball history. 

Coach K has spent 41 of his 46 years coaching at Duke, building the program into the blue-blood it is today. Along with being the all-time winningest men’s coach, he’s been to the NCAA tournament 36 times, won 13 ACC regular-season titles, and has 15 ACC tournament championships to his name. 

Coach K’s 13th Final Four will amazingly feature a first — Duke will face North Carolina for the 258th time — making it the first time the two rivals will face off against each other in the NCAA tournament.  

North Carolina is in the Final Four in Head Coach Hubert Davis’ first year at the helm, one year after the retirement of legendary coach Roy Williams. 

“I haven’t thought about it at all,” Davis said of Duke. “The only thing on my mind is celebrating with the rest of the players on what just happened today. Next week will be next week. And we’ll deal with that next week. But right now I don’t want to think about next week and lose the moment of today.”

It couldn’t be a more fitting end to arguably the greatest coach of all time’s career, as his most hated rival has a chance to send him home for good. That or Coach K can triumph one last time over the team that Duke measures itself against. 

On the other side of the bracket, two traditional powers will square off in Villanova and Kansas. 

Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright is the obvious choice to replace Coach K as the next legendary college basketball coach, facing off against a coach in Bill Self who has led Kansas to four Final Four appearances, winning a national championship in 2008. 

Unfortunately, Villanova will be without the services of their second-leading scorer in Justin Moore, who suffered a torn achilles in the Wildcats’ Elite eight victory over Houston. 

“I want to try and address early in the week just what an incredible player Justin is and a big part of this team, and how unique he is in this program,” Wright said on Monday. “He can defend any position. He literally has defended one through five. He’s one of the rebounding guards in the country. He plays every position for us offensively, except five, and he’s a leader out there. In that sense, he’s probably our most valuable player. I just want everybody to know, I think he’s underrated in terms of his value to this team and what he’s done this year. I think he’s truly one of the most complete players in the country.”

The Wildcats will be vying for their fourth national championship, and third since 2016, which would make them the team of the past decade.  

The Final Four is set, and it will be best-on-best in New Orleans. Just the way it’s supposed to be.  

Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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