NCAA: Princes of darkness and great white walls (part 2)

Standing on the other side of the uniform factor divide are the two current heavyweights in the college game, Duke and Michigan State. Both the Blue Devils and Spartans have had to wear white all the time... and they've gotten used to it.

Duke, in its emergence as a college basketball power under Mike Krzyzewski, actually used to excel as a road team in regional finals. Under Coach K, the Dukies won three straight East Regional Finals in East Rutherford, N.J., from 1988-'90. In each of those games, Duke wore its road uniform as a 2 or 3 seed, and promptly proceeded to knock off a 1 seed. In '88, #2 Duke beat #1 Temple. In '89, #2 Duke beat #1 Georgetown, and in '90, #3 Duke beat #1 Connecticut. In 1994, #2 Duke also beat #1 Purdue in a regional final, that one in the Southeast.

As the years have progressed, however, Duke has learned to live as a top seed, and has begun to feel comfortable in that role. Despite losing in the regionals in 1998 and last year, Duke has come out of the East this year (where Coack K is a ridiculous 30-1 all-time) as a top seed, as the Devils also did in 1999.

Duke's comfort zone in the home whites--and its unfamiliarity with road unis--can be tied into the 1999 Final Four. Duke was the undisputed top team in the nation going into the National Semifinals in St. Petersburg, Fla. However, two other top seeds were in the Four-ground in Tropicana Fieldhouse: Michigan State and UConn.

Since the NCAA stages a coin-flip to determine the home and visiting teams when teams have the same seeding, Duke wasn't guaranteed the home whites. And when the Dukies came out on the "dark" side of the coin flip, they had to wear their road unis, and their play suffered.

Duke did not dismiss and dismantle opponents as it had done in reaching the Final Four. In the semis against Michigan State, the blue-collar Spartans sucked the Devils into a bruising and brick-filled battle, staying with the superior Dukies until the final minutes. Then, in the finals, Duke lost its second coin flip, and this time, Coach K's crew was bedeviled and blinded by the white-hot shooting of Richard Hamilton, Khalid El-Amin, and Ricky Moore, all draped in white jerseys.

A final word about the Dukies and the home whites also bears mentioning, even though it goes farther back in the history books: in their last two national title game appearances, Duke wore their road jerseys and lost ('99 against UConn and '94 against Arkansas); in their previous two title game appearances, the last one being as the undisputed #1 team in the land in 1992 (where Duke went from Greensboro, N.C., to Philadelphia to Minneapolis in its NCAA Tournament journey, just like this year), Duke won.

All right, everybody ready? One, two, three: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

As good as Duke has become as a white-clad warrior, the folks on Tobacco Road can't quite compare to the Spartans of Michigan State, whose record in white is nearly spotless. Tom Izzo's MSU teams have lost just two games in the Big Dance over the last four years, and only one of those came in white: the aforementioned 1999 National Semifinal against Duke, in which the Spartans, by all rights, should have been wearing their road green, but lucked out on the coin flip.

There's a reason why Michigan State has upheld a #1 seed in each of the past three years and has won regional finals against a 3 seed (Kentucky in '99) and a 2 seed (Iowa State last year). Izzo refuses to allow his teams to play passively and to feel the pressure of being a high seed. It's more than just a coincidence when one team, one program, continues to set the gold standard for rebounding excellence and hard-hat-level hustle, year after year and season after season. Izzo, from Iron Mountain, Mich., has accordingly molded his teams into something resembling the name of his hometown. That translates into ugly, gritty games that ultimately produce beautiful "Ws" at tourney time.

Much like Krzyzewski, Izzo can chew out his players with the best of them, but his overall demeanor on the bench is much more relaxed than a lot of other coaches (Gary Williams comes to mind). The only area where Krzyzewski and Izzo differ is that Coach K, entering his ninth Final Four, has gotten used to bottling up his butterflies and emotions inside, hiding them behind a very mellow and maybe even supremely confident face. Izzo, who has freely admitted his surprise at his team's Final Four appearance this year, is still new enough to the head coaching game that he doesn't hide his anxiety on the sideline.

At any rate, Izzo and Krzyzewski both have teams that never take a possession off, and that's why Michigan State and Duke have snow-white reputations among college basketball programs.

So, the stage is set.

Arizona and Maryland, the dark dudes in the Dome.

Michigan State and Duke, the naturals of the Great White North.

Now the only questions remaining concern Monday's potential matchups: First, what if Maryland and Arizona meet? Even more importantly, who would win a coin flip between Duke and Michigan State for the white unis?

All kidding aside, it seems pretty clear that, on a general level, these four teams are settling into roles in Minneapolis where they feel naturally comfortable. And while the uniform colors obviously aren't the overarching key, there's no question that on a certain level, clothing does make the man during March Madness. (I could provide many other examples of teams that thrive in one uniform but fail in the other--Temple and Kansas both succeed in dark unis and fail in white ones.)

The bottom line in all this? Expect to see four teams playing at their confident, liberated best on Saturday. Should be a pair of All-American classics, because the three dominant jersey colors will be red, white and blue.