Duke-Wisconsin Promises To Be A Great National Championship Game

The National Championship game is all set and the Wisconsin Badgers will take on the Duke Blue Devils for all of the marbles on Monday night. Many people are disappointed that we won’t be seeing Duke take on Kentucky in the Championship, but this matchup might actually turn out to be a better game.

On the surface Duke vs Kentucky is a juicy matchup. You have Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari. You have the tradition of both universities. You have McDonald’s All-Americans littered all over both rosters (9 on Kentucky, 8 on Duke.) But when it comes down to it Wisconsin and Duke are so evenly matched, at least on paper, that this game should be a classic battle for the title.

Duke and Wisconsin did play earlier this year on Wisconsin’s home floor, a game in which Duke won by ten points. That game was played in the beginning of December though, more than four months ago, and both teams have made vast improvements since that meeting.

These two teams are both elite offensive teams, especially in terms of efficiency, and both teams play very good defense too. Recently Duke has picked up it’s defense in a major way in the NCAA tournament, so much so that many people are calling them an elite defensive team now.

More from Ball Durham

• Duke basketball: The architect behind digital dominance
• Duke basketball prioritizing frontcourt prospects in 2025
• Duke basketball: Unmasking the hate for the Blue Devils
• Duke basketball: Countdown to Craziness lands another huge visitor
• Duke basketball fills final open scholarship

The matchup’s in this game are very fun to look at. You have the two centers that were both first team All-Americans this year, Jahlil Okafor and Frank Kaminsky. Okafor and Kaminsky were the two guys that were going head-to-head for National Player of the Year all season long. While that’s the biggest matchup you also have a matchup between two potential lottery picks in Justise Winslow and Sam Dekker. All across the starting lineups these two teams matchup very well and it is hard to choose between the two teams.

While Bo Ryan was just snubbed from being elected to the college basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday morning, both he and Krzyzewski are great coaches and it isn’t likely that either will be out-coached.

As evidence of just how close this matchup is, Vegas started the game out as a pick em because even they couldn’t decide which team has the advantage heading into Monday. Wisconsin is coming off a huge win, that I guess would be considered an upset, while Duke won in blowout fashion in their semifinal game and has cruised into the Championship game.

While many fans will be upset we are not getting the big time matchup between Kentucky and Duke, don’t worry because Wisconsin-Duke will be just as great as that would have been, if not better. Monday night promises to feature a great matchup between two great teams, and it would not surprise anyone if this game came down to the wire. This game has classic written all over it, even before it has been played.