SAN ANTONIO--No one knew, but by now we all should have: It would be close and it would be Tech.

The pattern is clear. In this NCAA Tournament, Georgia Tech will stop its fans' hearts, but it won't stop playing.

With a 67-65 victory over Oklahoma State here Saturday, Tech moves on to Monday night's national championship game against Connecticut.

Here's a guess how it will end: It will be close and it will be Tech.

The Yellow Jackets have won five games in the tournament by a total of 23 points, but it has been closer than that. Tech's round-of-eight game against Kansas came to the end of regulation tied before Tech won in a relative walk, 79-71.

Tech junior forward Isma'il Muhammad -- a player whose slam dunks, quickness and leaping ability define the style of his team -- enjoyed once again defying expectations.

"We keep proving everyone wrong out there," he said. "We watch ESPN, we watch all those shows too and they keep picking us to lose. They picked us to lose against Kansas, they picked us to lose tonight. We keep going out there and proving everyone wrong."

Tech's first appearance in the national championship game will cap a season that's managed to be both inspirational and inevitable. The preseason media poll picked the Yellow Jackets to finish seventh in the ACC (They finished tied for third). They were supposed to be hobbled by center Chris Bosh's early departure for the NBA and the transfer of Ed Nelson.

Without Bosh, Tech was left with a 7-foot-1 Australian center still trying to learn the game, a transfer from Arizona still trying to find where he fit and a bunch of guards and forwards who went so fast and so high their teamwork pulled apart.

But what they had left was all they needed. That and coach Paul Hewitt, a cool-mannered, but intensely driven 40-year-old now in his fourth year in Atlanta. With an emphasis on speed, Hewitt has made the Ramblin' Wreck into a sports car. It's adept at making extremely tight turns on the road to the national championship game, but he would prefer more power at the end.

"I'm enjoying the ride," he said. "I mean I wish we could pull away and win the games, because it's just been the same thing."

This season, Tech got off to a 12-0 start, the best in school history. With Saturday's win, Tech improved to 28-9, tying the school record for most victories in a season. The win over Oklahoma State also meant Tech had beaten every other team in the Final Four. The Jackets beat Connecticut in the Preseason NIT and stunned Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 3.

In between the surprising beginning and the riveting finish, the Jackets lost eight games to ACC opponents. But those losses in the nation's toughest conference showed the competitive forces that were shaping the team that won Saturday.

The rigors of ACC play have made a young Tech team into a poised, tough -- and down the stretch -- confident team. Asked if he saw any doubt in his team's eyes after OSU's John Lucas completed a Cowboys comeback by tying the score in the closing seconds, Hewitt said flatly, "No."

"When you play our league, you know," Hewitt said. "People hear me harping on how good the ACC is. You know it's possession to possession. You've got to win the next possession. Never throughout this entire tournament run in any of the five games did I see any doubt in their eyes. ... Playing our league, you're conditioned that way."

After the game, Hewitt addressed his team. Then he and the Australian center, Luke Schenscher, and the transfer from Arizona, 6-foot Will Bynum, came out of the locker room to ride in a golf cart to the postgame interviews elsewhere in the vast Alamodome.

Hewitt sat next to the cart's driver. Sitting in the rear facing backward was Schenscher -- who has developed into an outstanding center -- and Bynum -- again the author of a winning shot in the tournament.

Off they went down the concourse, Hewitt in front and in the back, the long and the short of why Tech is still rolling.