(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
By: Marques Eversoll
All season, I’ve maintained the same thought regarding the top tier of college basketball: Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin were the best of the best. Everyone else followed those three teams.
Of course, Wisconsin beat Kentucky, and Duke beat a red-hot Michigan State team to meet in tonight’s National Championship—and the matchup between Duke and Wisconsin is about as surprising as a Tom Izzo-coached team reaching the Final Four. Meaning, it’s not surprising at all.
But while Duke has improved on the defensive end, and their talented group of freshmen have played at a level well beyond their 18-ish years, respectively, Wisconsin is the better basketball team right now.
Now, basketball is a sport, and sports are unpredictable. Everything makes sense until the game is played. Maybe Duke will shoot 65 percent again against Wisconsin and give them their second of what would be four losses on the season. But if Wisconsin and Duke were to play ten times on a neutral court, I think Wisconsin wins the majority—six, maybe seven.
“But Duke beat Wisconsin at Kohl Center.”
Duke shot 65 percent from the field and 58 percent from 3-point range. And while there have been numerous changes to both teams since December 3, the Badgers playing with a hobbled Sam Dekker and Traevon Jackson playing more minutes than Bronson Koenig outweighs Duke’s dismissal of guard Rasheed Sulaimon.
Duke has been dominant defensively in the tournament, as Justise Winslow has welcomed the tall task of guarding the other team’s go-to wing scorer. Dekker has his work cut out for him, but the Badgers’ offensive attack is dangerous, yet disciplined. Arizona and Kentucky have had no answer for the Badgers’ efficient brand of basketball.
It’s a neutral court, but it was obvious to the naked eye that Duke was a distant fourth when it came to the fan bases represented this week in Indianapolis. If the fan population Friday at the Final Four were condensed to a scale of 100, there were about 38 Kentucky fans, 30 Wisconsin fans, 20 Michigan State fans and about a dozen Dukies. Surely, both fan bases will be loud but based on numbers alone, I’m not sure Duke’s fan base can make its presence felt quite like Wisconsin’s and Kentucky’s did at different points Saturday night.
It’s Frank Kaminsky’s final game at the college level. It’s probably Jahlil Okafor’s, too. But if Kaminsky can finish his senior year with a clean sweep of Player of the Year awards, surrounding a National Championship trophy—the second in Wisconsin history—then the tale of the goofy freshman bench warmer developing into college basketball’s best would be one for the ages.
Despite Okafor’s presence around the rim, Kaminsky, Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes should control this game. They’re playing at an incredibly high level right now, and if it continues for 40 minutes right now, the Wisconsin Badgers will be on top of the college basketball mountain for the first time since Pearl Harbor.
Prediction: Wisconsin 72, Duke 70.
Marques Eversoll is on-air on SportsLine every weekday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 PM on The Fan, and he hosts the Saturday Morning Showcase every weekend 8:00-10:00 AM. Follow him on Twitter @MarquesEversoll.
