Blue-blood battles galore: After UConn survived MSU’s furious rally, a Duke showdown awaits with a Final Four bid on the line

WASHINGTON — Earlier this week, as he spoke to reporters here from Capital One Arena, a day before his team tangled with Duke in the Sweet 16, Rick Pitino caused a bit of a stir.

“The blue bloods no longer control basketball,” he said.

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“There’s no such thing as a blue blood anymore,” he added later.

And just in case we didn’t catch it the first two times, Pitino again quipped before leaving the podium, “There are no more blue bloods and I think it’s great.”

Well, about that…

A day after Pitino’s comments, Duke outlasted his St. John’s team and UConn survived against Michigan State to deliver an East region final on Sunday evening pitting two of the sport’s most recent dominant basketball powers in the country.

Are they blue bloods? Perhaps the bluest of the blue bloods over the last three decades.

The Blue Devils, the Huskies and a Final Four trip on the line in the nation’s capital? Yes, that’ll do just fine.

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Between them, they’ve got 11 national titles, 25 Final Fours and 87 — yes, 87 — NCAA tournament appearances.

Dead blue bloods? At least not here in the East regional.

In fact, the two programs account for more than one-third of the national titles since 1999 and six of the last 15.

They almost didn’t make it to this point, though. The Blue Devils needed to overcome a 10-point second-half deficit with an injured Caleb Foster rallying the team over the Johnnies. In the nightcap here, the Huskies (32-5) blew an early 19-point, lost the lead, got it back, lost it again and finally finished off the Spartans, 67-63.

UConn’s Dan Hurley celebrates with his team during an NCAA tournament game. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

At halftime, UConn coach Dan Hurley glared toward his senior leader, Alex Karaban, who up to that point had been skittish to shoot.

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“If you’re going to go out in this tournament, you’ve got to go out firing,” he told him.

Karaban finished with 17 points, buried half of his…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/article/blue-blood-battles-galore-after-uconn-survived-msus-furious-rally-a-duke-showdown-awaits-with-a-final-four-bid-on-the-line-054144664.html

Author : Ross Dellenger

Publish date : 2026-03-28 05:41:00

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