Don't hand Duke or WVU the title yet

The whispers have grown louder that the national championship game won’t take place Monday night as originally scheduled — but instead on Saturday night around 9 p.m. ET when Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils take on West Virginia coach Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers.

Haven’t we learned anything from all the dancing that’s gone on over the past couple weeks?

Anything can happen. And it has.

No one, maybe even Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobsen included, thought that the Panthers would bounce the overwhelming tourney favorite Kansas on the opening weekend.

Then, after Syracuse was knocked out by recent mid-major power Butler, Kentucky was deemed the prohibitive favorite.

Everyone thought John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and UK coach John Calipari would snip a couple of nets in Syracuse and then move onto Indianapolis, where the Wildcats would re-establish their rightful (at last that’s what their fans believe) place atop the college basketball world.

Except Calipari lost to Bob Huggins yet again, a continuation of a one-sided rivalry between two long-time friends. Calipari’s debut season in Lexington ended with a thud as his talented group, filled with NBA prospects, fell short, propelling Huggins back to the Final Four after an 18-year absence.

This was and is one of those years to expect the unexpected.

There were a few teams that rose to the top, but even they — Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse — weren’t that much in front of the rest.

The disparity was minimal.

There’s not much separation from the elite all the way down.

We had difficulty picking the elite league in America, the top player in the country and the superior team in the nation.

Now, we’ve got four teams heading to Indy that truly weren’t expected to be there.

“This is a bizarre year,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I’ve got to admit it. … This is not a normal year — and I’m not sure it’ll be like this every year.”

Trust me, Tom. It won’t.

Duke returns after a six-year absence, but are hardly the Dukies of old. There’s no Shane Battier, Jay Williams or Elton Brand in this group. In fact, it’s just a solid team led by three very good college basketball players: Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith.

West Virginia was regarded as a Top 10 team in the preseason and one that could challenge for Big East supremacy, but there were questions. The most obvious were about the point guard situation, where Joe Mazzulla and Darryl “Truck” Bryant weren’t considered up to a legitimate Final Four run.

Michigan State wouldn’t have been much of a shock to those pre-season prognosticators, but that all changed as the season progressed. Tom Izzo is arguably the best coach in the business, but the Spartans couldn’t find any leadership, were dealing with several injuries, and then lost their star point guard, Kalin Lucas, to a season-ending Achilles' tear, midway through the second-round victory against Maryland.

Butler was one of those perfect feelgood stories. After watching the Bulldogs practice in the preseason, I wrote that Brad Stevens’ team had a chance to play in their own backyard come April.

But then I began to doubt that notion. Butler struggled in the non-conference slate, most writing them off for any deep tourney run after they were completely overmatched against Georgetown at Madison Square Garden in December.

The Big East was widely regarded as the top league in America, but it hardly proved it on the sport’s biggest stage. Georgetown bowed out immediately to No. 14 seed Ohio, Villanova nearly lost to No. 15 seed Robert Morris in the opening round and then was bounced by Saint Mary’s. Louisville and Marquette had brief one-game stays, and Pittsburgh and Syracuse couldn’t get past the Sweet 16.

West Virginia is the only one left standing.

If there’s anything this season and this tournament has taught us, it’s that anything can happen.

Sure, the winner of the Duke-West Virginia game will certainly be favored on Monday night in the national decider, and many will crown them champions when they walk off the court on Saturday night.

That would be a mistake because, this year, it’s best not to assume anything.

Remember, March Madness can certainly carry over to April.