Morning Wrap-up: Duke-Michigan State set for Final Four

Every day during the NCAA tournament, theScore brings you the biggest, most interesting and most important stories as they happen. Check back each morning for a recap of what you may have missed the day before. It's OK, it's March Madness. There's a lot going on.

Here's hoping you like high-profile coaches.

The Final Four is littered with big-name bench bosses, with John Calipari, Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo and Bo Ryan meeting up in Indianapolis.

But Saturday's games will be about the teams and the players, and we're set up for a third consecutive fun weekend, with a really intriguing Duke-Kentucky battle potentially waiting as a heel-versus-heel main event on April 6.

Spartans prevail in overtime thriller

For the third season in a row, the Final Four will include a team seeded seventh or lower. It took an extra five minutes to get there, but Michigan State is heading to its third Final Four in the last seven seasons, too.

The 7-seed Spartans edged out No. 4 Louisville in a thrilling overtime game at the Elite Eight in Syracuse on Sunday, emerging from the slugfest with a 76-70 victory. Overtime almost wasn't necessary, but a friendly free-throw bounce gave Louisville extended life.

The Spartans aren't an elite defensive team, though they held Louisville to 35.9 percent shooting and just four threes. They nearly handed the game back by surrendering 15 offensive rebounds and sending the Cardinals to the line 29 times. The other way, Michigan State shot 43.3 percent, hit 9-of-23 from outside and, most importantly, grabbed one of their 10 offensive rebounds at the most crucial of times, with a Branden Dawson putback more or less sealing the game with 36 seconds to play.

Some sloppy execution by Louisville down the stretch prevented the Cardinals from coming back, committing a pair of turnovers in overtime and shooting 1-of-7 in the extra frame.

That avenges Michigan State's own ouster in the Elite Eight by a 7-seed a year ago - a 7-seed in Connecticut that would go on to win the national championship. Is that a good omen? It's yet to be seen, but the Spartans certainly have a load of momentum heading to Indianapolis.

Duke finishes dominant run through South Region

Gonzaga hung around all game. They were close at half, hanging in down 31-26 to Duke. They led by four with 16 minutes to play thanks to an 11-3 run to open the half. With 5:43 left, they had a chance to pull back within one at the free-throw line.

And Kyle Wiltjer missed the freebie. And then he missed a layup. And then the Bulldogs missed every field-goal attempt they took for the rest of the game, allowing Duke to close out on a 13-1 run, sealing the 66-53 victory and a spot in the Final Four for the first time since their 2010 national championship season.

Gonzaga is loaded with talent but was at a substantial athleticism disadvantage, which materialized in two key areas: getting to the free-throw line and forcing turnovers. Duke committed just three miscues for the entire game and the Bulldogs managed just nine free-throw attempts, making up for Gonzaga's 44-percent mark from the floor.

Duke shot 37.5 percent but went 8-of-19 from outside and 16-of-19 at the line. While the final score doesn't do justice to how tight the game was for the most part, it does show just how dominant Duke has been in the tournament: it won its four games by a combined 66 points, only once playing a single-digit game.

There's also some bizarre historical precedent for the Blue Devils to win it all based on their Elite Eight history.

Coaching Goliaths meet in Final Four

With Michigan State's win, Izzo is off to his seventh Final Four, an unbelievable run of success in only 20 years at the helm. When he comes face-to-face with Krzyzewski on Saturday, Coach K could choose to politely scoff at that resume. He won't - but he could, because Krzyzewski will be joining some elite company with his 12th Final Four appearance.

Coach K has been on the job for Duke for 35 years, so he has a longevity edge on Izzo, but his success is even more remarkable because of it. He hasn't missed an NCAA tournament in a season in which he coached the entire season since 1983.

It's not necessarily about the coaches, but the Final Four will certainly show that a good captain steering the ship can go a long way at the collegiate level.

Chris Mullin making the jump to coaching

Speaking of high-profile coaches, two-time Hall of Famer Chris Mullin is set to join their ranks. The most famous alumnus of the St. John's basketball program is expected to agree to be the school's new head basketball coach, with talks in the final stages as of late Sunday.

Mullin has no formal coaching experience but has been an NBA executive, adviser and broadcaster since retiring in 2011, and it's believed he's taken a more active role in the day-to-day coaching of the Sacramento Kings this season. 

That doesn't seem like the happiest of situations.

Prospect Watch

Dawson hadn't done his draft stock many favors in the tournament so far but stepped up in a major way in the second half, answering the call of Montrezl Harrell after Harrell's ridiculous first half. The two physical, high-energy combo-forwards played more or less to a draw, but it was Dawson doing his damage late, keeping Harrell to an 0-of-5 mark in the second half and overtime. Dawson finished with nine points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

You can check out a full prospect breakdown here, but here are a few notable performances:

• Harrell played great in the first half, holding Dawson to a 1-of-5 mark and dishing four assists, tying his career high. He finished with 16-9-4 with a steal, a block and a 6-of-12 shooting mark.
• The most notable prospect development of the evening is surely Jahlil Okafor losing his hold on the No. 1 prospect slot, according to both ESPN and Draft Express. Check out the full Prospect Watch for more. He had nine points and eight rebounds in the victory.
• Justise Winslow continued his assault on draft boards, tying the game's high with 16 points and adding five rebounds and some excellent wing defense. He's the real deal, and probably the best wing in the draft.

Other top performers

• Wayne Blackshear was unbelievable for Louisville, scoring a game-high 28 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He hit 4-of-6 from outside and a perfect 12-of-12 at the line, all despite playing through an illness. Quite a way for the senior to go out.
• Travis Trice's ridiculous tournament continued, with the senior scoring a team-high 17 points. The 5-of-15 shooting mark isn't great, but he added three triples, four rebounds and five assists. He's averaging 19.8 points and four assists in the tournament, shooting 13-of-32 from outside.

• Wiltjer closed out his junior season with a strong showing in the loss, scoring 16 points with five rebounds while shooting 6-of-13 from the floor. He'll almost surely return for a senior season, taking up Kevin Pangos's mantle as the team's leader. Pangos, by the way, had four points and four rebounds in his final collegiate game.
• Matt Jones came out of nowhere to tie a team high with 16 points for Duke, hitting 4-of-7 from long range. Jones came in averaging 5.9 points and had scored 11 in total through three tournament games.

Nice play, baby

There were plenty of entertaining highlights on Thursday - check out the top five here. Here are a few that can't wait for a click and a page load.

Travis Trice? Real name, no gimmicks.

Denzel Valentine must have gotten some tips from Spartans alum and superfan Magic Johnson.

Okafor, a 51.4-percent free-throw shooter, is lucky Gonzaga wasn't close enough to employ a hack-a-'For strategy late.

Full Results

4 Louisville 70, 7 Michigan State 76
1 Duke 66, 2 Gonzaga 52

Need More?

If this recap wasn't enough, yesterday's live blog still exists.

Up Next

The field is set! Two weeks of nonstop action have all led up to this, the Final Four. The matchups are as follows:

• No. 1 Duke vs. No. 7 Michigan State, 6:09 p.m. ET
• No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 1 Wisconsin, 8:49 p.m. ET

You can see full broadcast details here.

And yes, that's two Big Ten teams.

This should be a ton of fun, with Kentucky potentially facing two tough tests on the road to 40-0, and the top two prospects in the NBA Draft potentially squaring off in the national championship game. Get excited.

Just don't get too excited.