It isn’t the final many folks wanted, but it might be the final college basketball needs. Duke and Wisconsin, two teams better at scoring than defending, will play for the NCAA championship Monday night. If that doesn’t carry the sizzle of a 39-0 Kentucky facing the Blue Devils, so be it.
Wisconsin’s 71-64 upset hung heavy here on Easter Sunday. Hotel lobbies were jammed with Big Blue fans checking out two days early. What could have been the toughest ticket in tournament history — Kentucky borders this state and what ‘Cat fan wouldn’t have paid upwards of $500 to say he/she was there for 40-0? — became a buyer’s market.
The Wildcats themselves were gone from the Big Dance, but their memory lingered. Guard Andrew Harrison’s mumbled racial slur directed toward Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky became a regrettable talking point. Via Twitter, Harrison said he called Kaminsky to apologize.
Said Kaminsky: “Yeah, he reached out to me. We talked about it. Over it. Nothing more needs to be said.”
Sunday also brought a report that Kentucky coach John Calipari would be named to the U.S. Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday, while Badgers coach Bo Ryan, also a finalist, would not. That fell under the heading of weird timing. Ryan worked a great game Saturday; Calipari’s unbeaten team panicked after assuming a four-point lead with six minutes remaining, which was surely a failure of coaching.
An unbeaten season unraveled when Kentucky, after surging from eight points down, committed three consecutive shot-clock violations. With an offensive rebound thrown in, the Wildcats had the ball for two minutes and 19 seconds with the lead and couldn’t muster one decent shot. The Harrisons — Andrew and Aaron — dribbled the ball to no purpose. Calipari said afterward his team wasn’t trying to burn the clock; trouble was, Kentucky didn’t seem to know what it was doing.
The team ranked No. 1 all season played the worst two-plus minutes of offense ever seen in a Final Four, which is why Kentucky won’t be playing Monday. The Wildcats dominated opponents with defense and size and rebounding and talent, but when it came time to run a play, they were nothing special. (Historically, Calipari’s teams have never been very good at set plays.)
As for Wisconsin and Duke: They can run a play. They can shoot from the perimeter and score underneath. Wisconsin is No. 1 in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency rankings; Duke is No. 3. (Notre Dame, which nearly beat Kentucky in the Midwest Regional, is No. 2.)
At a time when scoring dipped to a 63-year low; when a December game between No. 1 Kentucky and No. 4 Louisville yielded a halftime score of 22-18; a time when an NCAA game between Virginia and Michigan State was 23-18 after 20 minutes … at such a moment, seeing two teams that can put the ball in the basket could be a tonic for a sport that is, after all, named basketball.
Said Ryan: “People can talk about scoring being down. It really doesn’t resonate with myself because we know what we’re trying to do.”
Duke averages 79.6 points; Wisconsin averages 78.6. When they met Dec. 3 in Madison, the Blue Devils won 80-70. Both entered the NCAA tournament as No. 1 seeds. There’s no mystery guest in this final.
“Coming into the year, I thought (Wisconsin) would be the best team in the country,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And pretty much they have been. It’s just that Kentucky’s undefeated performance overshadowed just how good Wisconsin has been, until last night when there were no shadows anymore.”
It was in this city in 1991 that Krzyzewski’s Devils upset then-unbeaten UNLV in the semis and took Coach K’s first (of four) NCAA titles by beating Kansas. Wisconsin will try to do something similar.
“We were as good or better than the (undefeated) team, though we weren’t the undefeated team,” Krzyzewski said, speaking of ‘91. “Wisconsin was every bit as good as Kentucky. And Kentucky’s great, don’t get me wrong … Wisconsin was great last night, especially in pressure situations. What (forward Sam) Dekker has done in the last few games in pressure situations has been phenomenal.”
Dekker’s step-back trey over Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns with 1:41 remaining put Wisconsin ahead to stay. A day later, the Badgers appeared unimpressed with their feat. They spent their media session laughing among themselves as Ryan answered questions.
“We’re just a fun group of guys, as you can tell by us sitting up here not getting any questions,” Kaminsky said. “We’re just sitting here joking around because there’s not much else to do.”
Not long after, Kaminsky was asked if he considered himself “The Man.” His response: “I don’t know. I wasn’t prepared for a question of that magnitude.”
Wisconsin-Duke won’t command the TV ratings Kentucky-Duke would have. But that’s not to say this won’t be a final of great magnitude, and maybe even a better basketball game.
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