St. Joe’s is gone, leaving a candlelight glow behind, and a legion of fans and converts sighing wistfully over what might have been at the Final Four.

Still, for a time Saturday, it looked like a small Catholic school might survive and earn the right to mix it up with the big boys anyway.

Xavier finally fell down Sunday after a wonderful run, beaten at the end by a program that seems to have the patent on winning.

Duke, of course. The aristocrats of college hoops. This news will be met with some impolite and unflattering noises. For some reason, sustained excellence isn’t appreciated by everyone.

So, 61 have been eliminated, and four are left to twirl around the Big Dance floor. The marquee is filled with familiar names: UConn, Duke, Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech. In order, a No. 1 seed, two No. 2s, one No. 3. It means the selection committee did a credible job.

UConn looks to be the best of what is left. The Huskies have the complete place setting — guards, forwards, centers, knives, forks and spoons. Talent and depth. And, so far, little reason to linger in the shower because their four tournament games have not required the breaking of perspiration.

Coach Jim Calhoun, who won a national championship in 1999, readily admits his cupboard overflows and includes two of the best 20 players in the country — guard Ben Gordon and center Emeka Okafor.

This largesse, however, carries with it a responsibility, namely an obligation to all that talent.

“I would have been disappointed in myself if I couldn’t get this team to the Final Four,” Calhoun said. “I’d have felt awful.”

Not to worry. Here they are, and they have won their four tournament games by 70 points, and even that does not begin to reflect how easily they have rolled along. It is worth mentioning that they have feasted on lower seeds — Vermont went down by 17, DePaul by the same, Vanderbilt by 20, Alabama by 16.

Their opponent on Semifinal Saturday, however, will be a team of far sterner fiber: Duke.

This one brims with promise. The Blue Devils, as is their custom, have the requisite parts, the sum of them exceeding … well, you know how it goes. Duke can play inside, outside, downtown, uptown, attic or basement.

The Devils have a driveway-bred shooter in J.J Redick, whose range stretches across both zip and area codes; a versatile, burgeoning talent in Luol Deng; and a coach extension in the patient point man Chris Duhon.

The other semi pits Oklahoma State’s lumberjacks and longshoremen against the road runners of Georgia Tech.

Whatever Tech does or doesn’t do will largely be the result of its Jack-of-all trades, Jarrett Jack, who is creator, orchestrator, elevator.

Jack will need to make himself a moving target against Okie State’s bangers. The Cowboys were the ones to bring St. Joe’s Technicolor Dream Machine to a halt in a 64-62 epic that takes its place on the top shelf of tournament games.

The guess here is that form holds and UConn beats Duke, and Oklahoma State takes out Tech. If so, that would leave Oklahoma State coach Fast Eddie Sutton one win from the national championship that has eluded him all these years. At 68, he would be the oldest coach to win a title.

Forty-five years in the business have taught him this: “Luck is big. You need a helpful bounce here, a call in your favor there.”

And he is a pragmatist about that championship: “If I do, I do, and if I don’t, well, it’s not the end of the world.”