Did you know that every time a CBS announcer refers to Chris Duhon’s bruised ribs an angel gets its wings?

It’s true—and during the course of the next week, heaven is going to have a serious over-population problem. Not since Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves hobbled on to the court of the 2000 NCAA Championship, has a player attempted such a courageous and selfless, oh never mind… If nowhere else, you’ll get a reprieve on the Duhon-love here.

In fact, Duhon doesn’t even rank among my top-10 favorite Dukies of all time. And I’d say rather than awarding him a purple heart after his last college game, analysts and fans alike should recognize the positive effect his bruised ribs have had on his tendency to jack the 30-foot trey. When Duhon doesn’t look to shoot, and defends—Duke is awfully hard to beat. If his rib injury is as serious as it is playing out, and if the pain is at its worst when rising up to shoot, I’m hoping the complete recovery time is still more than a week way. But, even if he wasn’t hurt—you’ve got to respect that the kid was on the floor for all of but 4 minutes of the Illinois and Xavier games combined.

I actually like the Duhon vs. Ben Gordon match-up for Saturday’s National Semifinal. But before we break down the Final Four, a couple of unresolved issues need addressing from the Xavier and Illini games.

Props to Dee Brown for playing his way through leg cramps on Friday night, but what in the hell are you getting leg cramps for in March anyway? Especially after four days off. If this were the November Maui Invitational, then I can maybe understand. But, one of the Illini’ trainers should be fired over this and I’m not even joking. Everyone knew to beat Duke that Deron and Dee would need to play the game of their lives, which would obviously mean they’d need to be on the floor to do so. No excuse for not having your team properly hydrated.

If you’re an Illinois fan, you also can’t be too happy with the coaching, or lack thereof, during the last 2 minutes. I was obviously rooting for Duke, and even I was yelling for Webber to have somebody foul. Granted, Duke is a good-shooting free throw team, and it just may have been delaying the inevitable, but as a fan I’d rather see my coach go down in flames (see: UAB’s Mike Anderson, Texas’ Rick Barnes) rather than arms folded, prematurely making his way for the post-game congratulatory handshake before the clock hits zeroes.

As far as Desipio’s senior correspondent, Mr. Dolan, long-standing assertion that Duke gets every call… I’m pretty sure Karry Ling carries a supply of tissue paper in his pocket for exactly this occasion. Or maybe there’s another reason. Like when I bust out a Britney pic.

In any event, nobody fouled out of the Illinois game, and the Illini’ were whistled only one more time than Duke. It wasn’t Duke’s or the referees’ fault that Illinois shot 54 percent from the stripe. Maybe you could make a case for Xavier’s Myles 5th foul being controversial, but not as controversial as leaving your only big man on the floor after picking up his 4th foul with over 12:00 remaining. Besides, Myles’ 5th had twice the contact of two of Shavlik Randolph’s clean blocks that were whistled, contributing to his fouling out on Sunday.

Here’s an idea, maybe programs other than Duke’s could think really hard in the off-season about coaching their players on the fundamentals of drawing an offensive charge. The thing is it takes a special kind of player to stand their ground, knowing they’re about to go down hard (insert homo-phobic Blue Devil joke). I find it hard to believe that those types of players are solely recruited by Coach K. Until the NCAA changes how they officiate such contact, you can either spend a little time on your back (insert 2nd homo-phobic Blue Devil joke), or insert some free-throw shooting jinx drills in to your team’s practices.

Now on to the Final Four. Unlike B.C. I did not have Georgia Tech in the Final Four. They were good enough to beat Duke in the regular season, but I thought they were still a year away. I did however have the remaining three teams correct, which really wasn’t all that hard.

Unless B.J. Elder is able to play through his sprained ankle with the same heroics and courage that Chris Duhon has mustered these last three weeks (kidding), I see Oklahoma State winning quite comfortably. And I agree with Andy, enough with the Win One For Sutton outcry. Not only was the guy dirty at Kentucky, one of the few places where one doesn’t even need to be dirty to succeed, even after his coaching days are over he’ll live comfortably off the royalties from all those Keystone Bitter Beer Face commercials he shot back in the 90’s.

And forget any re-seeding talk you hear between now and next Monday. The tournament selection committee has already done enough with the pod system, region re-naming and mis-seeding to jack up the tournament. The last thing they need to concern themselves with is how the final three games align. Sure, you can make the argument that Duke-Connecticut is a National Championship match-up, but I think you could say the same thing about Pitt-Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma State-St. Joseph’s. Anyone you hear saying differently, will be automatically qualified for next year’s asshat tournament.

Of all the times Duke has finished their season with a loss, the 1999 Final vs. Khalid El-Amin and Co. left the most bitter taste in my mouth. I become incensed on any occasion when a team playing behind isn’t at the very least able to get a shot off, and the fact that Coach K allowed Trajan Langdon, one of his least skilled dribblers, to go the length of the floor rather than giving the ball up to Chris Carrawell on the weak side has always been a source of irritation for me. Not to mention the $100 I had riding on the game.

The Blue Devils now get a chance at redemption. One that could still result in a loss to to the Cowboys two days later. UConn was fortunate that they did not need Okafor for the second half of the Alabama game. I’d be surprised if he plays as effectively as he did in the first half when he blocked 5 shots. Rashad Anderson’s hot hand will not be lost in film sessions by the Duke coaching staff this week. I think much like the perimeter oriented defense of Deron and Dee on Friday, Duke will take out Gordon and Anderson (easier said than done) with a heavy dosage and fresh rotation of Duhon/Dockery/Ewing. That leaves plenty of talented guys to still beat you. Namely Okafor.

Offensively, Shavlik, Shelden and Deng will need to hope for an officiating crew that Mr. Dolan would not approve of. If Shelden is in foul trouble, Okafor will have a field day inside, as he’ll dominate anyone else Coach K puts in the low post. Which will alleviate enough pressure inside that Anderson, Gordon and Brown could theoretically get out on Ewing, Redick and Duhon and prevent a hot 3-point shooting day.

Which leaves us with Luol Deng, the Atlanta region’s MVP. The guy you’ll learn all about his connection to Dikembe Mutombo, his half-time rallying tears, and mother and father who’ve never seen him play over the course of the next several days. Josh Boone will have his hands full with Deng, as he is playing with much more confidence than he has all year. To be honest, he’s playing like a top-5 NBA Draft pick—-just like Okafor.

If I weren’t a Duke fan, I’d say the Huskies win by 8. Instead I’ll say J.J. Redick hits a three at the buzzer for a one-point victory, and hopefully he celebrates with a less gay looking open-mouthed, tongue-wagging, hop and a skip down the court, as many of you were recently forced to stomach.

Until then, feel free to jump on the bandwagon. No, not the Duke bandwagon—the one that represents all that is good and right with the world. I’m talking about the trendy, A-B-D (Anybody But Duke) contingent. Forget the pride in knowing that at least your team was beaten by the eventual champion. Coach Jim Calhoun is so much more of a sympathetic man of the people than the “Polish Johnny Cash” (Honestly, I still have no idea what that means), right?

Doesn’t matter, Duke covered on Friday like I told you they would, and Coach K is only two NCAA tournament victories away from breaking another record.? Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m pretty sure Chris Duhon just had a lung collapse, so I’m going to go light a couple of candles and pray.

More angels, more wings…