Names, numbers from the regionals

"It’s incredible, the consistency and obviously the expectation,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said of Izzo. "You know, I thought that — the accomplishment certainly speaks for itself. And to do it with numbers of different teams. And it’s obviously a great accomplishment. Tom Izzo is probably as accomplished and outstanding a coach as there is in our profession.”

UCLA’s John Wooden leads the list with 12 Final Fours, one more than Dean Smith of North Carolina and two more than Mike Krzyzewski, whose Duke team played for a possible berth later Sunday.

This will be the first Final Four with two No. 5 seeds in it, and they will meet in one of the semifinals.

Michigan State, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Regional, and Butler, who held the same position in the West, will play Saturday.

Five other No. 5 seeds have reached the Final Four since seeding began in 1979: Iowa in 1980; Mississippi State in 1996; Florida in 2000; Indiana in 2002; and Michigan State in 2005. None went on to win the national championship.

Michigan State is making its eighth Final Four appearance and Butler its first, but they do have one thing in common: The Spartans played in the Final Four in their home state last year in Detroit, while the Bulldogs will be the first team to play in a Final Four in its home city since UCLA in 1972.

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SUMMERS’ RELIEF: When Kalin Lucas ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in Michigan State’s second-round win over Maryland, all eyes fell on his replacement at point guard, Korie Lucious.

The player who did the most to replace the 2008-09 Big Ten Player of the Year turned out to be off guard Durrell Summers, who almost doubled his regular season scoring average in leading the Spartans to a second straight Final Four appearance.

Summers, who came in averaging 10.9 points per game, scored 80 in the four NCAA tournament games, including 21 on 8-of-10 shooting in the regional final win over Tennessee.

His best outing of the tournament was 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the game when Lucas went down in the first half with the season-ending injury.

His biggest shot Sunday was a 3-pointer with 2:52 to play that broke a 66-all tie.

"Well, it was a big shot by Durrell, and we always are looking for him on the perimeter to make those shots because we know what he can do. And he’s a great shooter,” Lucious said.

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NO ONES: Duke faced Baylor in Sunday’s late game and had the fate of the No. 1 seeds riding on the outcome.

Since seeding started in 1979, only twice had a No. 1 seed not advanced to the Final Four, and Duke was the only one still with a shot at doing that.

Overall No. 1 seed Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse were all gone by the regional finals, leaving the Blue Devils the sole survivor.

None of the No. 1s made it in 1980 and 2006. One No. 1 has moved on 10 times, the last in 2004.

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CONFERENCE CALL: There will be four different conferences represented in the Final Four for the third time in four years. The Big East had two — Connecticut and Villanova — last year.

From 1999 through 2006, all but one year saw two teams from one conference advance. The Big Ten did it three times in that eight-year stretch, the Atlantic Coast Conference twice and the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference once each.

"I’m just going to say I’m proud to represent Michigan State, and I’m proud to represent the Big Ten, that conference that sometimes gets maligned but always seems to have teams in the Final Four,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.

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ONLY ONE: Butler is this year’s only first-time Final Four participant.

The last first time entrant in the national semifinals was George Mason in 2006, a Final Four also held in Indianapolis.

Tennessee was trying to make it the first time for two first-timers in the Final Four since 1996 when Mississippi State and Massachusetts made their debuts.

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FAST START: The shooting percentages finally caught up with Tennessee.

The Volunteers entered the regional final against Michigan State shooting 31.7 percent for the season from 3-point range, a figure that had them 10th in the 12-team Southeastern Conference and 239th among the 347 Division I school.

Against the Spartans they hit their first five from beyond the arc. Then the reality of stats showed up. Tennessee, which went 4 of 15 on 3s in the regional semifinal win over Ohio State, made only two of their last 11 3-point attempts, finishing 7 of 16.

"We looked good offensively. We were making shots. We had a really good inside-outside attack going and there was some real flow,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "In the second half we didn’t get much of a fastbreak. ... But we’ve been winning with defense and rebounding, and I felt we lost control of that game there when they made some shots that we just didn’t contest.”