INDIANAPOLIS — No one ever made a “Hoosiers” movie out of Duke. No one ever had to bother to typecast Gene Hackman as Mike Krzyzewski. No one ever will dare mention Jimmy Chitwood and Christian Laettner in the same sentence.
Coach K and his Duke Blue Devils aren’t here to partake in the celebration of Butler as destiny’s darlings, as the mid-major Little Engine That Could standing up to the Goliaths of the Final Four. There was no Duke pilgrimage yesterday to Hinkle Fieldhouse, no desire to stop in at Plump’s Last Shot, named for the hero of the local 1954 Milan High School team that we all know by now was made for Hollywood.
And so we interrupt this raging love affair for baby-faced Brad Stevens and his Butler Bulldogs to remind America that Coach K and his Duke Blue Devils — The Team You Love to Hate — are ba-a-a-ck.
Ba-a-a-ck at the Final Four for the first time since 2004.
Ba-a-a-ck at their 11th Final Four, one shy of John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty.
Ba-a-a-ck to win their fourth national championship together.
Ba-a-a-ck to win one for the first time since 2001.
Ba-a-a-ck to win one in the city where Coach K won his first one in 1991.
Ba-a-a-ck with a team that so embraces his defensive and rebounding mantras he considers it one of his all-time dream teams.
COMPLETE MARCH MADNESS COVERAGE
And so there sat Krzyzewski yesterday, hair jet black still at 63, clad fittingly in a black sweatsuit. Darth K. Dangerous as ever. Dream coach of this dream team. There always has been an aura about him — something to do with his 75 NCAA Tournament victories and 77.3 winning percentage, second only to Wooden’s 82.5 percent, with his 866 career wins — and he has remembered again how to infuse his team with it.
“It’s an aura I really feel can’t be broken right now,” Duke forward Lance Thomas said.
West Virginia gets to try to break it tomorrow night after Butler-Michigan State. The stars of this Final Four are the coaches . . . the unflappable, precocious 33-year-old Stevens . . . the wondrous Tom Izzo, who does more with less at Michigan State than anyone… native son Bob Huggins, trying to take a championship back home to the country roads of West Virginia . . . and Coach K, the biggest star, the Wooden of his generation. He is no less addicted to winning championships now than he was when Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill lit up Tobacco Road.
“Everything about his demeanor right now is winning,” Thomas said.
“He’s confident. We’re confident as well. He’s very excited right now. He’s excited to coach us and we’re definitely excited to play for him.”
Who wouldn’t be?
“He’s not gonna be rattled by any of the outside forces, or just being here,” Thomas said.
“It’s his 11th Final Four he’s been to, which is pretty ridiculous when you think about it,” Blue Devils guard Jon Scheyer said. “Even though he’s been to a lot, you know he wants it just as much as all those. When you look at him, you see poise, you see confidence, and that helps a lot when you see that in your coach all the time.”
It also helps having a late-clock closer like Nolan Smith, whose late father Derek won the national championship here in 1980 with Louisville.
“Now I have a chance to follow in his footsteps and do the same thing that he did . . . and that really gives me a lot of extra motivation to go out here and just leave it all on the court,” Smith said.
He sports a tattoo of his father’s face on his arm.
“He’s the unsung hero of our team,” Krzyzewski said.
The charismatic 6-foot-2 guard will look for his mother Monica in the stands tomorrow night.
“I got the tattoo when I was 15,” Smith said. “She said, ‘It better look like my husband.’ I said ‘OK.’ I wanted something that I could always look down when I’m thinking about him and knowing he’s always watching over me.”
Someone was watching over him when he poured in 29 points against Baylor.
“He has the ability to create off the dribble and he has guts,”
Scheyer said.
The Yankees of college basketball, the only No. 1 seed still standing, are ba-a-a-ck.
“Because we have Duke on the front of our jerseys,” Thomas said. “Other teams wanted to take our heads off.”
No one could.
steve.serby@nypost.com