ABCDE

SPORTS

saturday, april 3, 2010

PRO FOOTBALL

Redskins add Parker

The starting RB spot appears open as two-time Pro Bowler Willie Parker agrees to a deal. D2

BASEBALL

Nats’ fifth wheel?

Several factors add fluidity to the team’s pitching rotation. D6

NCAA TOURNAMENT

THE FINAL FOUR

Common ground

CHRIS CHAMBERS/GETTY IMAGES

West Virginia’s Kevin Jones

150

Consecutive conference losses for the Gallaudet University baseball team before the Bison beat Stevenson, 5-3, on Thursday. A1

BLOGS, MULTIMEDIA AND CHATS washingtonpost.com/sports

NCAA tournament Full coverage, including photo galleries and blogs, from the Final Four. Capitals Insider Catching up with former captain Chris Clark, who’s finishing a trying season in Columbus. Baseball picks contest Make your predictions for the season along with Baseball Insider’s Dave Sheinin.

PRO BASKETBALL

Ruled at home

The Wizards set another dubious franchise record with their ninth consecutive loss at home, a 95-87 defeat against Chicago. D5

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RAJAH BOSE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michigan State’s Raymar Morgan

ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES

Butler’s Gordon Hayward

[5] BUTLER VS. [5] MICHIGAN STATE

Bulldogs, Spartans have been hosts with the most pressure

A nearly identical scene took place the

by Steve Yanda

indianapolis — Déjà vu struck the Fi- nal Four just before 1 p.m. on Friday at Lu- cas Oil Stadium. An overwhelming num- ber of fans — most of the estimated 30,000 in attendance — showed up to support the hometown team for its open shoot-around, and at the end of the session the team walked to the edges of the court and re- turned the favor, applauding to demon- strate their appreciation.

day before last year’s national semifinals in Detroit, where Michigan State received an outpouring of support at Ford Field from fans throughout their home state. But the Spartans are not the feel-good story of this Final Four. In fact, on Saturday night they’ll find out what it’s like to square off against the NCAA tournament’s lone remaining dar- ling when they face Butler, whose campus

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[2]WEST VIRGINIA VS. [1]DUKE

TODAY’S SEMIFINALS

[5] Butler vs. [5] Michigan St., 6

[2]West Virginia vs. [1] Duke, 8:45

MONDAY’S FINAL

Butler/Mich. St. vs. W. Va./Duke, 9:21

All games in Indianapolis and televised on CBS

indianapolis — When West Virginia beat Duke in an NCAA tournament second- round game two seasons ago, Mountaineers guard Joe Mazzulla memorably slapped the court to mock Duke’s defensive tradition. Mazzulla said he got caught up in the mo- ment and did not intend to send a message to the Blue Devils. But the gesture remains an indelible image from that game and is most representative of the tenor expected

Mountaineers and Blue Devils mirror each other’s grit

by Eric Prisbell

throughout Saturday’s Final Four game be- tween the same two teams at Lucas Oil Sta- dium.

Both teams have improved in two sea- sons, and both are here because of defense, rebounding and what players on both sides called dirty work. As much as anything, Sat- urday’s game will be decided by deflections, charges, loose balls and second-chance points. It may not always be easy on the eyes.

grit continued on D4

ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES

KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Preaching patience, perseverance

MIKE WISE

Gallaudet coach pushes past pain

W

hen we think of hardship in college basketball, we think injury, graduation loss or

must-win expectations. The banged-up Michigan State men, after all, somehow got to the Final Four on subs and sutures. The Connecticut women, unbeaten in their last 75, have to win it all, or else they become the Greg Norman of their sport. But what if hardship meant genuine hardship? What if, after coaching some of the

best players in the world, you got the short end of the stick during an ownership change and had no full-time job?

And after raising championship trophies with the Houston Comets, whom you coached as a WNBA assistant, the only chance anyone gave you to be a head coach in college was at the world’s only university that’s exclusive to deaf and hard-of-hearing students? Oh, and you didn’t know a word of

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TRACEE HAMILTON

Caps facing a save situation

C

JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST

“There are going to be growing pains,” says first-year D.C. United Coach Curt Onalfo.

Long journey lands Onalfo back in D.C., where he’s charged with reviving United

United vs. Revolution

by Steven Goff

When: 7:30 p.m. Where: RFK Stadium.

The miniature leather soccer ball is

aged and misshapen but still a radiant reminder of Curt Onalfo’s roots in the sport. Now that he has resettled in Washington, Onalfo has found a rest- ing spot for it on his desk inside D.C. United’s coaching bunker in the base- ment of crusty RFK Stadium.

The brown ball was placed in his crib shortly after he was born on Nov. 19, 1969 — the same day that Pele, the Brazilian icon, scored “O Milesimo,” his 1,000th professional goal. At the time, his parents were living in Sao Paulo, where Curt’s father, Jim, was on

executive assignment for General Foods overseeing an ice cream com- pany. Proclaiming it an omen, friends pre- sented the ball to Curt’s mother, Linda. “Flowers and that little ball,” she

said, “those were our gifts.” Since the beginning, Curt Onalfo has been intrinsically tied to soccer.

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ontroversy might be a little strong. Let’s call it a situation. The Capitals have a goaltending

situation. It’s a situation some other teams might envy, but for the Caps, the key is keeping it from blossoming into a controversy. The Capitals have two very good

goaltenders. José Theodore is 27-7-7 with a 2.87 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. Semyon Varlamov is 14-4-5 with a 2.52 goals against average and a .909 save percentage. (Math was never my strong suit, but there seems to be very little difference between .908 and .909.)

Of course, there are bigger differences

between the two as well. Theodore is 33 years old, 5 feet 11, 185 pounds, and has far more starts this season than Varlamov, who missed more than two months with nagging injuries. Varlamov is 6-2, 209, and he’ll turn 22 during the playoffs, if things go the Caps’ way. And that’s another difference: the

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