This is is how big the Big Blue has become: A game featuring famous coaches who’ve won five NCAA titles and have taken teams to 19 Final Fours has been rendered a warmup. Any other April, Duke versus Michigan State would be the marquee event. Here, Tom Izzo and Mike Krzyzewski keep getting questions about a team at least one of them won’t face.
On Friday, Michigan State’s Izzo enlivened his media briefing by averring: “I don’t think social media is helpful to any human being on the planet.” (This produced a round of laughter.)
Minutes later, Izzo played off his own line by saying, “I think Kentucky’s trying to do such a big thing. I’m not on social media, and even I know it’s a big deal.”
Said Duke’s Krzyzewski: “The Kentucky story has been a great story for college basketball because we’ve talked about a team. Part of the marketing of our sport started to shift towards what the NBA does, promoting individuals, especially the potential one-and-done players. I thought that was to the detriment of our sport. This year, with Kentucky’s story, it’s about a team.”
Said Bo Ryan, whose Wisconsin Badgers will play the unbeaten Wildcats on Saturday: “Do you think I have to tell my players that this is a big game or that Kentucky’s pretty good? I think our guys are astute enough to figure that part out.”
Within the sport, the feeling about Kentucky has shifted. The Wildcats’ narrow escape from the Midwest Regional — they trailed Notre Dame by six points with six minutes remaining — has emboldened the stop-Kentucky lobby. The latest conventional wisdom holds that the Badgers represent an even greater threat than the Fighting Irish did.
“I think we’ve had a pretty good season also,” Ryan said. “Our guys believe in a 40-minute contest, when they step on the court, that we can get this.”
Wisconsin is 35-3, having stormed through the West Regional, beating North Carolina — which is nearly as tall as Kentucky — by scoring 48 second-half points and then dissecting a superb Arizona team by scoring 55 points on 34 second-half possessions.
According to Ken Pomeroy’s rankings at kenpom.com, Wisconsin leads the nation in adjusted offense, meaning points per possession. (Notre Dame is second.) Kentucky leads in adjusted defense. The irresistible against the immovable, or something like that.
Kentucky and Wisconsin met in last season’s Final Four, with the eighth-seeded Wildcats winning on Aaron Harrison’s late 3-pointer. The Badgers are essentially the same team, led by center Frank Kaminsky — named the Associated Press player of the year Friday — and forward Sam Dekker. The 38-0 Wildcats are light years better than the 29-11 crew of last season.
For those historically inclined, Kentucky-Wisconsin will mark the sixth rematch of a previous year’s Final Four game. In four of the first five, the same team won both games.. The exception, if you’re a Kentucky fan, is chilling.
In 1990, UNLV beat Duke 103-73 for the national championship. A year later, Duke upset the Rebels 79-77 in a Final Four semi at a time when Vegas was 34-0 and considered invincible. That game was staged in this city. (Though not in the same building. The RCA Dome has yielded to Lucas Oil Stadium.)
Some of Ryan’s former players have wondered why every mention of Kentucky notes that the Wildcats are trying to become the first undefeated NCAA champ since Indiana in 1976. Has no one heard of the 1995 and 1998 Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers, who went 31-0 and 35-0 in winning Division III titles? Does no one realize that Ryan coached those teams?
“I don’t text back, ‘No, they’re not smart enough (to know that),’” Ryan said. “I text back and say, ‘They don’t feel it’s relevant in this Division I environment.’ “
A bit earlier, Ryan was asked if he had any hobbies. “Medication,” he said. “Oh, excuse me. I meant meditation.”
This drew a great laugh, which was noteworthy: Ryan has never been mistaken for Jerry Lewis. Apparently the usually crusty coach really does feel his Badgers can get this game. If they do, Bo Ryan’s latest team will be remembered forever.
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