Jon Scheyer scored 23 points Saturday night to lift Duke, the team so many folks love to hate, to a 78-57 victory over West Virginia and set up a meeting against tiny Butler -- a classic matchup of big vs. little, with the national title on the line.
"I think they're one of the best teams in the country," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his upcoming opponent, which has won 25 straight. "I think a Cinderella would be more if somebody had eight or nine losses and pulled some upsets."
Still, Butler is a No. 5 seed. And in a tournament turned upside down, the Blue Devils (34-5) were the only No. 1 seed to make it to the Final Four.
Their trip, however, wasn't totally predictable or expected. Duke had gone six long years since its last appearance and hasn't been to the final since winning it all nine years ago -- a veritable century by Tobacco Road standards. Now, this group of Blue Devils has a chance to give Coach K his fourth national championship.
"It's everything," senior center Brian Zoubek said. "This is the culmination of four years for me. To have a shot at the championship my senior year, after everything we've been through, is a dream come true."
Those who stayed after watching Butler win might not have liked what's coming next in Monday night's final. And those who think Duke has been humbled by its championship drought will certainly look at the replays of Miles Plumlee hanging on the rim way too long after a dunk that drew a technical foul, but also put his team up by 14.
A bit of showmanship for a program that routinely has been dissed across America as being too arrogant, too this, too that.
The theme came up again, predictably, this week, on several fronts - including the retraction of an illustration of Krzyzewski on the front of the Indianapolis Star sports section with horns and a target scribbled onto his head.
Coach K's response to all that: If you want to hate us because we have kids who go to school, graduate, play solid, team ball and win a lot, go ahead.
They do all that, but they're winning in a different way this year.
They're without a single superstar, but with an emotional center in Smith, who finds himself back in the city where his father, Derek, led Louisville to a championship back in 1980.
Derek Smith died of a heart attack at age 34, when Nolan was 8, and the guard is just coming around to talking about it.
''It crossed my mind a little bit,'' Smith said. ''But I'm playing for myself and my Duke team and I'll let my mom do all the thinking about my father's footsteps.''
His mother might argue that, given Smith's history, a title in Indianapolis would only be fitting.
There's another team, the hometown Butler Bulldogs, who will argue the very same thing.
May the best team win.
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