Deng Says He’ll Return to Duke

All was not sad in the Duke locker room. Not with freshman forward Luol Deng announcing he would not be tempted by the NBA’s riches and would return for his sophomore year.

“No, I’ll be back,” said Deng, who led Duke in scoring against Connecticut with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

-- Paul Gutierrez

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Oklahoma State finished its season Saturday with a 67-65 defeat, but Cowboy Coach Eddie Sutton’s career is not over.

“No, it’s not my last game,” the 68-year-old Sutton said after his team’s defeat to Georgia Tech. “But I am disappointed because I think we’re a little better.”

Sutton says he will return for his 15th season at Oklahoma State and his 35th as a Division I coach.

No coach has made more NCAA appearances, 24, without winning a national championship, yet Sutton says he’ll look back on this 31-4 season as one of his most satisfying.

“I’m disappointed now,” Sutton said. “About a month from now when I look back on the season we had, it was a marvelous year.”

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Connecticut beat Duke on Saturday, 79-78. In the 1990 East Regional finals, Duke defeated Connecticut by the same score, although that game was in overtime.

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This year marked the 40-year anniversary of John Wooden’s first national title at UCLA.

Wooden, however, citing his limited mobility at age 93, did not attend this year’s Final Four. Wooden had hoped to present former San Antonio Spurs’ center David Robinson with the Coach Wooden Keys to Life award Saturday.

Instead, Wooden’s daughter, Nan, represented her father in the ceremony.

-- Chris Dufresne

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Before the first semifinal game, Oklahoma State’s Tony Allen made a prediction to former high school teammate and friend Will Bynum of Georgia Tech.

“He told me to get ready to go fishing,” said Bynum.

After Bynum hit the winning shot in the final second in Tech’s 67-65 victory, the conversation changed.

“I’m going to tell him that I’m sure there are lots of good lakes in Stillwater,” Bynum said.

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Although Connecticut features at least one NBA first-round draft pick, Emeka Okafor, and two other potential NBA high picks in Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva, Georgia Tech probably has no first rounders.

Which doesn’t bother the Yellow Jackets a bit.

“I mean, we don’t care about that,” Bynum said.

“We’re enjoying the moment, being here in college, playing for the national championship. We don’t really care about that right now. We came here to win.”

-- Bill Plaschke