WASHINGTON — All weekend long, in your living room or your sports cave or your favorite saloon, the soundtrack of college basketball season had been reduced to a guttural series of yelps and squeaks and nonsensical verbal spasms.
Because one after the other, basketball players in Anaheim and Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., were forcing basketball fans to their most basic reactions.
“AUUUUGGHHHHH!”
“WHOAAAAA!!!!!”
“BLAAHHHHAAAHHAA!
Whether it was a blond-haired Virginia forward named Mamadi Diakite or an unconscious Purdue sharpshooter named Carsen Edwards, whether it was the gaggle of Auburn shooters or the beyond-belief intensity of Texas Tech defenders, one play after another, with the season and the Final Four on the line, the players would perform magic on the courts and all around America people would fall over themselves.
“Every one of these Elite Eight games were amazing games,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And this was another one.”
So it seemed altogether appropriate that the last of the four greatest Elite Eight games in recent memory should come down to two plays that would make the 20,125 inside Capital One Arena — and so many more all across the country — come almost completely unglued.
First: Down one 39 seconds left — season on the line, remember, Final Four bid on the line — a Michigan State forward named Kenny Goins drilled a 24-foot jumper to put the Spartans ahead.
“I knew I was going to be open,” Goins said. “Soon as it left my hand, I knew it was good.”
Then, after a flurry of missed Duke shots and one critical missed free throw by RJ Barrett, it was State guard Cassius Winston who would take an inbounds pass and sprint-dribble it to the other end of the floor as the final seconds of the clock bled away.
“It was shocking,” Winston said. “I knew I’d get fouled and would have to knock down some free throws … but then I had the ball in my hand and I got away and I thought: ‘This is really happening’ …”
So the one-and-done Duke show ends one step shy of the Final Four, and Michigan State’s assortment of grinders and — gasp! — upperclassmen get to experience Minneapolis in April alongside Auburn, Virginia and Texas Tech. Not a blue blood among them. It ought to be quite a party.
“Hats off to them,” said Zion Williamson, who ended his college career with one more spectacular effort, 24 points and 14 rebounds and three blocks. “They’re a great team.”
Said Barrett: “All credit to them. But for it to be over for us … that’s heartbreaking.”
Krzyzewski put it another way.
“They played older than we did,” which, in the one-and-done world in which Duke now competes is the highest compliment of all. “Sometimes the other team doesn’t cooperate. They didn’t cooperate.”They didn’t. The Spartans weren’t cowed by the Blue Devils, not even a little bit. That was the shared characteristic of all the teams that will advance to Minneapolis. Virginia shook off a late deficit and Edwards’ otherworldly shooting. Texas Tech overcame Gonzaga’s precise offense. Auburn overcame injury and the mighty aura of Kentucky.
And when it was the Spartans’ time they rose to the moment, seized that moment.
“I can’t tell you how many times in those huddles we refused to give up,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “This team may be mentally tougher than any team I’ve ever had.”
It means they belong with the others who will gather next weekend in Minneapolis. To survive this greatest of all Elite Eight weekends, you needed a little something extra. All of that extra will be on display next weekend. It ought to be fun.