NCAA Tournament Final 4 Preview - Duke vs West Virginia

Game #2: West Virginia vs. Duke - Saturday, 40 minutes after the end of Game 1, CBS

These are not your older brother's Duke Blue Devils.

No sir.

This is not a pure finesse team. These Blue Devils don't have five guards on the floor. They aren't going to live and die by the three the way they used to.

The 2010 version of the Duke basketball team is a tough, physical group of kids. Would you believe anyone who told you that the key player on this team is Brian Zoubek? For three and a half seasons, Zoubek was nothing more than a gangly, flailing mass of arms. A top 25 recruit, he wouldn't have known a post move if it punched him in the face. He still doesn't, but over the last 10-15 games of the season, Zoubek has developed into one of the better rebounders in the country. He's always been big, but he's developed an aggressive streak. He goes to the offensive glass hard, he sets screens like a brick wall (ask Purdue's Chris Kramer, who got knocked out by a Zoubek screen in the South Regional semifinals), and he's good for a couple of buckets every game. He has no business shooting the ball in the low post, but he scores because he gets putbacks and cleans up on the glass.

Zoubek isn't the only capable big man that Duke has either. Lance Thomas and the Plumlee brothers, Miles and Mason, are all strong and athletic. Duke will need each one of them when the Blue Devils go up against the Mountaineers. If there is one thing that you can count on with a Bob Huggins-coached team, it is physicality.

This version of the 'Eers has, at any given time, four combo forwards on the floor - all in the 6'7" to 6'9" range, all aggressive going to the glass, and all capable of hitting a perimeter jumper. Duke can rebound, but the dudes from Durham, N.C., are certainly going to have their work cut out for them on the glass.

The key matchup in this game is going to be Da'Sean Butler against the man Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski puts in front of him. Butler usually plays the two-guard spot, and it is going to create a matchup problem both ways. Whether he is guarded by Jon Scheyer or Nolan Smith, he is going to have a size and strength advantage. Huggins isn't afraid to use Butler in the post, and his height advantage allows him to shoot over smaller defenders.

It works the other way, too. Butler is a tough kid and a hard worker, but he is not as quick as Smith or Scheyer. If WVU decides to use a man-to-man defense - which is what the Mountaineers have to do against Duke on most trips down the floor, given the shooters the Blue Devils have - Butler is going to be matched up with either Smith or Scheyer.

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Two factors that will be talked about at length in the buildup to tip-off - but which aren't necessarily all that important - are Truck Bryant and Kyle Singler. Bryant has a broken bone in his foot, but there is a chance that he could actually see time during the Final Four. If he does, one should doubt that he is going to be much of a factor. No matter what kind of orthotic you have installed in your shoe, a broken bone is still a broken bone. If Bryant doesn't play, West Virginia knows it can get a big game from oft-injured point guard Joe Mazzulla; Kentucky sure knows what he is capable of.

As far as Singler goes, he has a tendency to struggle against players his size with his mobility, which is just about 75 percent of the WVU roster. One shouldn't expect him to be much of a factor.

This is going to be a great basketball game. It won't be that aesthetically pleasing, and it wouldn't be surprising if it ended up somewhere in the low 60s. However, what you will see are two well coached teams that play physical basketball and compete really hard.

Get your ice packs ready in Indianapolis, because these blue-collar kids will need it Saturday night when this game is over.

By: Matt Zemek
ACC-Fans Senior Staff Writer