During the plane ride back from Houston on Sunday night, after all the celebrating had been done, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski took a satisfying look back.

Coaches often watch film on the team charter to review what went right or wrong during the game. At the end of this viewing session, there was a bonus.

On the replay, Krzyzewski saw Duke director of basketball operations Chris Spatola’s arms go up and a look of sheer joy on his face. Moments like that are what make this 11th Final Four trip special to a coach who’s already won three NCAA titles and an Olympic gold medal.

Krzyzewski and Duke are back in the Final Four after a six-year absence during which doubters questioned his recruiting and the effect of his Olympic commitment on the Blue Devils while rival North Carolina went to three Final Fours and won two NCAA titles. But because it’s has been a while, and Krzyzewski especially enjoys this team, this trip to the Final Four is different than the earlier ones.

Krzyzewski will have a chance to add to his NCAA-record total of tournament wins when Duke (33-5) tips off against West Virginia (31-6) at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in the national semifinals in Indianapolis. Krzyzewski also has tied former North Carolina coach Dean Smith for the second-most Final Four appearances ever, one behind the record of 12 set by UCLA’s John Wooden.

Despite Duke’s championship history, though, Krzyzewski has been reminding everyone throughout March that this particular group is as new to the chase for a Final Four as a team like Baylor. Spatola, for example, played at Army like Krzyzewski and served in Iraq but has never participated in a Final Four. That’s why Spatola’s reaction Sunday touched Krzyzewski.

He has grown to admire, appreciate, even love this team. He is thrilled that this group will experience the special event that he has enjoyed so many times in his career.

“This one is really good,” he said after Duke defeated Baylor, 78-71, in the South Regional final.

“I mean, I want to just enjoy it with these guys. I never had a group exactly like this one. Again, we’re not a great team, but we are really a good team. But we have great character. To be around that character on a day-to-day basis is so fulfilling for me. That’s why I’m very, very happy for them.”

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For Bob Huggins, it has been an 18-year wait to return to the Final Four — nearly two decades filled with job changes, health problems and trouble with both the NCAA and the law.

Only six years — mostly drama free — have passed between trips for Mike Krzyzewski. Yet in many ways, his time away from the top of college basketball has felt longer.

Such is life when you’re the coach at Duke and your program goes that long without making a Final Four.

“People expect us to always be at this stage,” Blue Devils forward Lance Thomas said.

Duke’s opponent in Saturday’s national semifinal is West Virginia (31-6), which is returning to the Final Four for the first time since 1959. It’s Huggins’ first trip since 1992, back at the peak of his long, tumultuous stay at Cincinnati.

That kind of drought might gnaw at some coaches. But the 56-year-old Huggins insists he hasn’t spent much time — any time, really — during that span wondering if he would make it back or worrying about his shortcomings.

“Not really,” he said, when asked if there’s anything specific that eats at him. “I can’t say I worry about our guys, because our guys are really good guys. I want them to be successful and do well. But I’ve never lived my life worrying.”

If he did, there’d be plenty of material to choose from.

An abridged look at the list includes the 0.0-percent graduation rate at Cincinnati for several seasons and the heart attack in 2002. He ran what was widely viewed a rogue program, cited by the NCAA for the dreaded “lack of institutional control” in 1998. But “Huggy Bear” didn’t get chased from the Cincy sideline until he started fighting with the school president after his 2004 DUI arrest was caught on video.

Though beloved at West Virginia, Huggins remains a divisive figure in Cincinnati, where memories of his bad temper, along with the other baggage, are still vivid. The fact that the Bearcats haven’t enjoyed near the success since his departure plays into the mix.

“I had countless opportunities to leave and didn’t want to because I didn’t want to leave the city, the people, and more specifically, I didn’t want to lose my players,” said Huggins, who was forced out after 16 years.

After the tough ending in Cincinnati, his faith in school administration was restored during a single season at Kansas State. Despite the positive experience, he bolted when his alma mater came calling.

West Virginia sports are more than simple games in that state, and not surprisingly, any program with a half-century drought will be patient with a hometown boy who returns. Huggins rewarded the faithful quickly, and has done it with little of the trouble that followed him earlier in his career.

Only three years into the job, he found a group of players, led by Da’Sean Butler, who buy into his mantra: “Do What We Do,” and don’t try to do too much.

“He came in and said, ‘I’m going to turn you into my guys,’” Butler said. “He said, ‘You’re going to be guys who play hard, defend, rebound, things like that.’”

They are. As are Krzyzewski’s players at Duke (33-5).

Since 2004, when the Blue Devils lost to Connecticut in the national semifinals, Krzyzewski has kept the talent coming in and won four ACC tournament and two regular-season titles. But during that span, Duke hadn’t advanced past the NCAA regional semifinals until this year.

That, combined with the two national championships North Carolina has won in the same span, has certainly made it easier to criticize a program that already has its share of haters.

Naturally, job security is of no concern to Coach K, in his 30th year at Duke. He insists he’s listened to very little of the critiquing outside of what the people in his own circles tell him. He says the only time he, or anyone, should feel pressure is when they’re in over their head.

“I think pressure is when you’re asked to do something you’re not capable of doing,” Krzyzewski said. “So you should train and be in a position where you’re capable of doing what people ask of you. And if you’re continually feeling pressure, you should probably try to do something you can do.”

Duke has done it this year with a very un-Duke-like combination — one that includes lots of height, starting with 7-foot-1 Brian Zoubek, plenty of rebounding and defense and nary a superstar.

The program that gave us Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Christian Laettner, Jason Williams and dozens more NBA players has produced a 2010 team with pro talent, but no lottery picks — a team with players who can score and defend but nobody who dominates nightly.

The man who turned it into Final Four material: Krzyzewski, who insists he never let the criticism get to him.

“I think everyone feels pressure, but not the pressure from the outside,” he said. “It’s the pressure from within, to do as well as you think you can do.”

Both coaches have helped their teams come close to, or reach, their potential this season. Now, they will meet in a matchup featuring two coaches who have ended droughts — long by Coach K’s standards, nothing to worry about the way Huggins sees it.

“They say it balances out,” Huggins said. “If it balances out, we should be in great shape — if the people who say that know what they’re talking about.”

Source: AP as posted on GoDuke.com

Now that Duke has worked its way back to a Final Four for the first time since 2004, don’t be surprised to see the Blue Devils make a habit of it again.

Going back to 1986, Mike Krzyzewski’s pattern has been one of repetition. His teams got to five straight Final Fours starting in 1988 and then again in 1994, 1999 and 2001.

At 63, Krzyzewski is still relatively young as college coaching careers go these days, and there’s no doubt he’s still as committed to winning as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s.

Kryzyzewski addressed that topic at length during last weekend’s South Regional games in Houston.

“I am every bit as passionate about my team today as I was in ’86,” he said. “There is no question. You can ask anybody. There is no question about it. I love what I do. I love my guys and they deserve that, just like my ’86 team did.

“Whenever it is that I stop coaching, it will be because I can’t go at that level. It won’t be because I can’t coach. It will be because I couldn’t give my team that. But right now, I can do that and willingly do that. I guess there will be some time where you won’t have that, which will be sad. But I’m going to go for it as long as I have it.”

The key is getting the right personnel. In Krzyzewski’s case, the correct personnel blend doesn’t necessarily mean signing the most talented recruits each season. The talent level has to be high, of course. But it’s more about work ethic, chemistry and leadership, which the current team has in excess.

Next season, the Devils will be without Lance Thomas, Jon Scheyer and Brian Zoubek for sure, and there’s a chance junior Kyle Singler will leave for the NBA.

The remaining primary parts – Nolan Smith, Andre Dawkins, Miles and Mason Plumlee – may not add up to an intimidating lineup, but help is on the way.

Transfer Seth Curry, although lean at 6 feet 1 and 175 pounds, almost certainly will absorb some of the 3-point shooting drain. Incoming recruit Kyrie Irving is rated one of the fastest guards in the country and a reliable shooter.

With or without Singler, the Blue Devils are going to be a lot quicker team and one with many interchangeable parts. The obvious question mark will be frontcourt depth, but some improvement by 6-10 Ryan Kelly could go far in solving that problem.

A trademark of Krzyzewski’s career always has been breakthrough events. The first big one came in 1984, when he beat North Carolina with Michael Jordan in the ACC tournament.

Next came the ’86 East Regional and the wins over DePaul and Navy to qualify for his first Final Four.

The biggest hurdle was cleared in ’99, four seasons after Krzyzewski’s health problems so sidetracked the momentum that the dynasty was in trouble. Two seasons later, he had his third national title.

What happened in Houston had the feel and look of another turning point. On paper, Baylor probably had more basketball talent, meaning Duke had to get to a Final Four largely on intensity, intangibles and coaching.

It’s precisely the sort of accomplishment that has reinvigorated the program for 30 years. Duke’s back, and Krzyzewski’s teams rarely retreat. In short, there’s no reason at all to believe this will be his final Final Four.

Source: newsobserver.com