For the first time in the NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin didn’t close the game strong, didn’t shoot well and got into foul trouble and will now leave Indianapolis with broken hearts and without a national championship.
In the immediate aftermath, the main area of focus for many fans was several controversial calls and a decided second-half foul discrepancy that favored the Blue Devils, and it’s certainly a point that will always be brought up whenever this game is talked about.
The Badgers, who came into the night averaging the fewest fouls per game in the country (12.5), were called for 13 fouls in the second half alone. Midway through the second half, Duke was already in the double bonus while UW never even entered the bonus.
Over the final 20 minutes, the Blue Devils went 12-of-16 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, the Badgers attempted just three free throws in the second half.
“[Duke] got to the free-throw line a lot. Drove into us,” said redshirt senior guard Josh Gasser. “We fouled too much the second half. They were just driving it hard.”
Of course, to boil the game down to a single topic like officiating and blame the outcome solely on the refs would be wrong, as the Badgers did themselves no favors on offense down the stretch.
Wisconsin missed 12 of its last 16 shots from the field and the Blue Devils finished the game on an 18-9 run to capture their fifth national title in school history. It was a disappointing ending for an offense that had built a reputation on finishing games on a strong note time and time again.
Duke, on the other hand, thrived on offense thanks in large part to the outstanding play of its four freshmen: center Jahlil Okafor, forward Justise Winslow, and guards Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen.
They combined to score 60 of the Blue Devils’ 68 points on 20-of-39 shooting from the field, while Wisconsin’s four seniors (Gasser, Frank Kaminsky, Traevon Jackson and Duje Dukan) combined for 28 points on 10-of-27 shooting.
In addition, junior forward Sam Dekker, who had been phenomenal for UW during the NCAA Tournament, was never really able to get it going on offense. He finished with 12 points on 6-of-15 shooting, including going 0-of-6 from beyond the arc.
The sensational play of Duke’s freshmen was on full display late in the game, when the Blue Devils took firm control of the game thanks to 10-0 run. That stretch included two layups by Okafor, who spent much of the game on the bench in foul trouble, and was bookended by a pair of 3-pointers by Jones.
However, Allen, who scored 16 points off the bench, was the real X-factor for Duke. Coming into the game, he had been averaging just 4.0 points per game this season.
“We knew what he wanted to do, what his strength was. His ability to drive it hard is a strength, his ability to shoot threes is a strength and that’s what tournament runs are made of,” said UW assistant coach Greg Gard. “We’ve had guys step up big too, but tonight we weren’t able to get enough done to be able to counter what he was doing.”
In the end, it was the play of the Duke freshmen that proved to be the difference in an excellent national title tilt. On college basketball’s biggest stage when the lights were shining brightest, these four players performed well beyond their years.
For UW, this meant the end of an incredible two-year run that saw it make two Final Fours, but come up short of a national championship both times. Wisconsin has never been a program built around freshmen under Bo Ryan, but rather developed upperclassmen.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, the close bond created by a program that prides itself on senior leadership made Monday night’s defeat all the more heartbreaking.
