Duke and UConn, unmatched for the past 35 years, prepare for another March Madness collision

No wonder Sunday's Elite Eight matchup between the Huskies and Blue Devils feels a little early. This year, the Final Four only has room for one of them.

“Obviously they’re both world-class institutions, but basketball is critically important,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said Saturday. “Since the ’90s, UConn and Duke have been the two best college basketball programs on the men’s side in the last 30 years. So it’s a pretty cool matchup.”

Duke and UConn first met in the NCAA Tournament back in 1964 — a 47-point win that sent the Blue Devils to the Final Four — but it was the 1990 clash that foreshadowed what this rivalry would become. Duke won that one, then eliminated the Huskies again in the 1991 Sweet 16.

UConn eventually broke through. In fact, Mike Krzyzewski probably wins two more national championships if not for the Huskies. His 1999 Duke team was loaded but lost in the title game to UConn in a battle of No. 1 seeds — the result surprising enough that Huskies guard Khalid El-Amin's first reaction was to shout “We shocked the world!” loud enough to be heard on the broadcast.

Five years later, UConn topped Duke in what was technically a semifinal, but they were the two best teams remaining. The Blue Devils blew an eight-point lead in the final three minutes. UConn's victory over Georgia Tech in the actual title game was anticlimactic by comparison.

Now, Coach K vs. Jim Calhoun has morphed into Jon Scheyer vs. Hurley. And Hurley has a family tie to the rivalry. His brother Bobby was a star at Duke and played in the 1990 win over UConn. Dan Hurley was at the game — and he says he and Bobby also attended the 2004 Final Four matchup.

“My family has obviously got this special connection with Duke, with Bob and how much that has meant to our family, those moments, my brother’s success and the amazing run he had there,” Hurley said. “Now being on the UConn side of it, kind of an archrival this time of year, some heartbreaking moments on both sides, to find myself, I would not have imagined I’d be on either side of this.

"Pretty cool to be in an Elite Eight game versus Duke here after having witnessed so much of it.”

Duke (35-2) enters Sunday as the tournament's top overall seed, with the longest active winning streak in the country at 14 games. UConn (32-5) is trying for its third national championship in four years, a feat not accomplished since the final years of John Wooden's UCLA dynasty over a half-century ago.

“I think what coach Hurley has done, he’s been able to — as a coach, you want as much control as possible, right? The way that they run called actions, they’re able to manipulate where they’re getting what they want most times,” Scheyer said. “To think that we can go over every action or every play, it’s impossible in a one-day prep. So for us it’s been about concepts, it’s been about personnel, and then still doing what we feel we do best, and that’s the activity we have on the defensive end."

Duke and UConn reached this point by beating St. John'sand Michigan State, respectively, in the Sweet 16. The East Region was heavy on brand names, and Friday's games lived up to expectations. Both winning teams escaped when the opponent missed a 3-pointer that would have tied it in the final seconds.

All that's left is for the Blue Devils and Huskies to play another classic.

“You have two of the biggest brands in college basketball going at it to make it to the Final Four. I think it’s super special,” UConn forward Alex Karaban said. “You’ve seen Duke, you’ve seen UConn throughout your entire life when you watch college basketball growing up. To be another piece of that story of those two programs going at it, I think it’s awesome.”

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness