WASHINGTON — Back at his alma mater, back in the NCAAs, Bob Huggins looked and sounded just like the Bob Huggins everyone remembers.

He yelled. He groused. He drew an early technical foul. And he willed his No. 7-seeded West Virginia past second-seeded Duke.

Playing tough man-to-man defense, grabbing what seemed like every loose ball, West Virginia used Joe Alexander's 22 points and 11 rebounds and all sorts of contributions from unlikely sources for a 73-67 victory over Duke yesterday, getting to the NCAA tournament's round of 16 in Huggins' first season.

"His passion, his lack of fear, is something we try to put out on the court," said Alex Ruoff, whose 17 points included a 3 at the shot-clock buzzer that tied the game at 37 in the second half. "When you see that passion on the sideline, the last thing you want to do is let that man down."

While the Mountaineers (26-10) will face No. 3 Xavier in Phoenix on Thursday, the Blue Devils (28-6) must deal with a second consecutive early exit.

"No matter how well or how hard you're playing, you've got to put the ball in the basket," said Krzyzewski, whose team was held to 38 percent shooting and missed 15 consecutive 3-pointers in one stretch. "We didn't do that today."

Gerald Henderson scored 18 points for Duke. But DeMarcus Nelson had only six points on 2-for-11 shooting, a game after scoring two when the Blue Devils eked out a one-point victory over No. 15-seed Belmont in the first round.

This time, there was no escaping. Instead, Huggins could appreciate a quick personal comeback. This is, after all, a guy who was out of work two years ago.

He got fired at Cincinnati — a school he led to the 1992 Final Four — after a drunken driving arrest, then sat out a season before surfacing at Kansas State in 2007. He took that team to the NIT, losing in the second round.

Now he's back home in West Virginia, at the school he played for, and back among basketball's elite.

"People think I sit around and think about that stuff. I don't," Huggins said. "I don't think about the past. I mean, I try to learn from the past. But I don't dwell on the past."

And that is precisely the attitude he sought from West Virginia (26-10) after a first half in which is was outscored 34-29, went 0 for 6 on 3-pointers and missed — by Huggins' count — five layups.

If Huggins does anything, it's make his players believe, and West Virginia managed to force Duke into 15 consecutive misses from 3-point range and figured out a way to hold a 47-27 rebounding edge.

Reserve guard Joe Mazzulla, all 6-foot-2 of him, had 11 rebounds to go along with 13 points and eight assists.

When Alexander made a layup off the glass while getting fouled and then completed the three-point play with 14:38 left in the game, he put West Virginia ahead 40-38, its first lead since 4-3.

Mazzulla's drive down the lane made it 47-40 with under 12 minutes left, capping an 18-3 run.