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INDIANAPOLIS — The Duke Blue Devils believe they will beat Michigan State tonight and advance to the Elite Eight because Mike Krzyzewski is their coach.
The Michigan State Spartans believe they will beat Duke tonight and advance to the Elite Eight because Tom Izzo is their coach.
America will be treated to a clash of the titans, one living legend (Coach K) and the man they call Mr. March (Izzo), piloting two storied programs that have set a standard of sustained excellence the late John Wooden would have applauded.
The ongoing lovefest between Krzyzewski and Izzo stands in sharp contrast to the death struggle they have plotted for the other’s team. A game where every possession means something, where defense is a holy crusade, where only the strong survive. A take-no-prisoners game. A game of indomitable wills.
Coach K won’t be trying to lock down Keith Appling or Branden Dawson, and Izzo won’t be trying to get up into sharpshooter Seth Curry, the players will decide the outcome. It’s just that Coach K’s players and Izzo’s players have a long history of deciding the outcome in their favor.
Coach K: 81-24 (all-time-best .771 percentage) at the Dance, 883-237 at Duke, a record 956-296 overall, 11 Final Fours, four NCAA titles. Izzo: 39-14 (.736) at the Dance, 439-177, six Final Fours, one NCAA title. Michigan State’s players will know everything there is to know about Duke’s players, and vice versa.
“You better saddle up,” Izzo has told his team, “because there’ll be nothing given. Everything’ll be earned in this matchup.”
Krzyzewski seconds that emotion.
“I know they’re gonna play every play,” he said. “I know they’re well-prepared, and that they play to win. For the most part, both our programs, we don’t beat ourselves … someone has to beat us. I think he coaches every game like it’s his first. I try to do the same thing … hopefully with the knowledge of having won a few. So there are no possessions off. They’re gonna show up, we’re gonna show up. I really love that. This is a big-time game.”
This will be the NCAA Tournament rubber match between Coach K and Izzo. Izzo avenged a 1999 Final Four loss in the 2005 Sweet 16 when Duke was the No. 1 seed. Coach K holds a 6-1 advantage overall. One former college coach told The Post he would give Izzo the slight edge making in-game adjustments, Coach K the slight edge developing leaders.
Just because Krzyzewski is the Wooden of this generation doesn’t necessarily mean Duke wins this game. The Spartans are plus-40 on the glass in this tournament, a reflection of Izzo’s obsession with physical toughness and tough-mindedness.
“He is a coach you can’t doubt,” Spartans junior forward Adreian Payne said. “He always has something up his sleeve. We are never under-prepared for another team.”
The Blue Devils are very much a reflection of Krzyzewski.
Mason Plumlee: “He doesn’t panic. He’s always cool and collected. But very confident throughout a game.”
“He knows who we are as players and we know who each other are as players,” said Blue Devils senior forward Ryan Kelly, who missed 13 games with a right foot injury. “When you have that understanding with each other, it’s a lot easier to play together.”
Duke (29-5) is 20-1 with Kelly in the lineup, that one loss coming in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals to Maryland.
Curry points to Krzyzewski’s refusal to lose as the catalyst for the Blue Devils’ success.
“I think just his competitiveness is something that’s relayed in us,” Curry said. “How bad we want to win every single game, and there’s no other option.”
Krzyzewski pooh-poohs the notion this will be a coaching chess match.
“You can’t be instinctively reactive to what’s going on in the game if you’re constantly looking at your coach to tell you every move,” he said. “Our teams are prepared to follow their instincts, and they have good instincts and so do we.”
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, of Duke and Dove Men+ Care, has a book out entitled “Toughness,” a trait he said Krzyzewski exemplifies.
“Coach K’s toughness comes from his trust level,” Bilas said. “He’s got an amazing level of trust in his players, and his players trust him. … He goes for it. But he’s not afraid to lose.”
Epic matchup. Legends game.
“It’s not so much difficult to prepare for ’em in an X-and-O standpoint, it’s difficult to prepare from a toughness standpoint,” said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose team faces 12th-seed Oregon in the other Midwest Region semifinal. “I have so much respect for both guys because of their longevity of excellence. … They’re standard-bearers for what we as coaches should follow from a blueprint standpoint.”
This isn’t the national championship game. It will just feel like one.
steve.serby@nypost.com