Duke vs. Wisconsin: Don't Downplay This Blockbuster NCAA Tournament Final
INDIANAPOLIS — So the best 38-1 team in college basketball has taken its unexpected leave. What did you think would happen? That they wouldn’t hold the NCAA final Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium?
That CBS would show re-runs of The Jackie Gleason Show instead of Duke and Wisconsin on runs down the court?
This isn’t like you paid to see Olivier in Hamlet and got a bumbling understudy. No Kentucky, no problem—unless you’re one of the very blue fans of Bluegrass territory.
There’s no unbeaten team. There hasn’t been one in 39 years. But there will be a national champion, and either of the two finalists will be deserving of the distinction.
Duke, yes, is despised—all that basketball success, all that implied arrogance—but it has tradition, legacy and a freshman center, Jahlil Okafor, who quite likely will be the No. 1 pick in this June's NBA draft.
Wisconsin, yes, is unappreciated—isn't it an academic school with a lot of radical professors?—but it has history, offense and a senior forward, Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky, who was just chosen the Associated Press Player of the Year.
Upsets? Bad for stomachs. Easy there on the spicy mustard. Great for sports.
Jim Mora, when he was coaching the New Orleans Saints, wisely told us, “You don’t know, you can’t know, you never will know.” True, but what we do know is that Wisconsin beat Kentucky—and Duke crushed Michigan State.
For one team, Duke, we have the coach, Mike Krzyzewski, with more wins, 1,017 and counting, than any other. For the other team, we have a coach, Francis “Bo” Ryan who has made it at every level, starting with Division III, the Plattevilles and Wisconsin-Milwaukees.
What do we want out of our games, unpredictability, surprise, down-to-the-wire suspense? Name athletes. That’s what we have in the final. We also have a four-time NCAA champion, which took its last title five years ago in Indy, and a school, which having gone through Arizona and—dare we mention again?—previously unbeaten Kentucky in an attempt to win its first championship since 1941.
We also have the sort of contrasts that make newspaper and Internet editors rub their hands together in glee—three probable one-and-done kids at Duke—Okafor, Justice Winslow, Tyus Jones—matched up against the stay-the-journey players at Wisconsin—Kaminsky, Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson. (Yes, Sam Dekker is a star, but he’s a junior where the others are seniors.)
Were sporting fans (other than Kentucky types) rooting against the Wildcats? Unquestionably they (other than Dukies) will be hoping the school has a Blue Devil of a time against Wisconsin.
ESPN recently ran a special called I Hate Christian Laettner, built upon both the last-second jump shot that—here we go again—knocked out Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA regionals and the general dislike toward his alma mater. Jealously, perhaps, but genuine. Next to Duke, Kentucky comes across as a school of basketball humility.
All this hostility certainly makes for more interest. Individuals tend to vote against people they can’t stand rather than for those they admire. Get Duke on a court and you get a nation’s attention. Where does that leave Wisconsin? Trying to crawl through the open window, that’s where.
When Ryan was asked Sunday what winning the national title would do for basketball in a state known mostly for the Green Bay Packers or Milwaukee Brewers, he was understandably taken aback. As if, how dare someone ask him that question.
“I don’t know about perception,” Ryan responded. “I do know these guys have established themselves as a pretty good group of young men that have come together... Whatever this team accomplishes Monday night, one way or another, it’s who they are.
“They proudly have represented the University of Wisconsin, the Big Ten. I’ve never really [been] concerned if there are people who perceive us a certain way because we are who we are. We play the way we play. We’re sure happy with it. So we can live with that.”
His team stops Kentucky, and suddenly the man is an evangelist.
On the other side, Krzyzewski is a realist. He remembered when his ’91 Duke team defeated previously unbeaten UNLV in an NCAA Final Four.
“Wisconsin’s as good as Kentucky,” said Krzyzewski. “And Kentucky’s great. Don’t get me wrong. Wisconsin’s a great team. So to me, it wasn’t surprising whoever won that game. In ’91, we had Laettner and [Bobby] Hurley. We weren’t too shabby. In order to beat an undefeated team, you have to be pretty good.
“I mean, Wisconsin was great [Saturday] night, especially in pressure situations.”
No Kentucky, but a Duke-Wisconsin final is the next best thing. In fact, for some, it might even be better.
Art Spander has covered 33 consecutive Final Fours. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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