2010 March Madness Bracket Preview

Bob Huggins and Mike Krzyzewski are two coaches high school basketball players would love to play for if they had their choice.

The two have coaching resumes that are second to few and boast 2010 talent strong enough to lift them both to a conference tournament championship.

Unlike their slow start against Kentucky, the Mountaineers jumped out to an early lead on Duke. Joe Mazzulla’s shot off glass gave WVU a six point lead at the 15-minute mark.

The Blue Devils countered back with treys from Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer - the player of the game with 24 points. Just like that it was Duke who was on top by five. The Cameron Crazies felt the momentum swinging to their side of the arena. They were wrong.

West Virginia’s defense held Duke to just one field goal during an eight minute stretch of the first half. During that defensive disruption, the Mountaineers took a seven point lead with under two minutes to go in the half. Singler finally ended Duke’s shooting skid by knocking down a jumper. However, the 1-seed trailed West Virginia by five at the half.

Bob Huggins got a workout yelling at his team early in the second half. His lungs burning from his team's inability to catch fire, the Mountaineers went scoreless for four minutes allowing Duke to creep back.

We fast forward to the final minute of the game. Wellington Smith’s only bucket came in crunch time as he buried a three pointer to tie the game up at 70 with 51-seconds to go. On the other end, Mason Plumlee drove through the lane and gave Duke the lead back with 28-seconds remaining.

West Virginia with a crack at the tie elected to hold for the last shot. They must have made one too many extras passes. They coughed up the rock and into the hands of Plumlee as time expired.

Duke advances to the championship game with a 73-70 win.

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