Duke Wins NCAA Basketball Championship

It was the freshman dominated Duke Blue Devils vs. the experienced Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA basketball championship game on April 6th, and in the end, Duke stopped the Badgers 68-63, one victory short of claiming Wisconsin’s first NCAA championship since 1941. The Blue Devils won their fifth title, all of them under coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Wisconsin had Duke on the ropes with a nine point lead early in the second half, but the Blue Devils got some terrific play from guards Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen to come back and win. Jones is a starter, but Allen came off the bench and scored 16 points after averaging four for the rest of the tournament.

It was a contest between two coaching philosophies. Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan prefers to build a team with players who will be around for most or all of their four years of eligibility, five if they are redshirted. Krzyzewski has become a recent convert to the one and done school of recruiting, an approach favored by Kentucky’s John Calipari and an increasing number of programs. At the post game news conference, an obviously disappointed and irritated Ryan said his program “doesn’t use rent a player”, prompting criticism of sour grapes and being a sore loser. Point taken, but consider this: the losing team is given just 10 minutes to compose itself before being made available to reporters. That just isn’t enough time after such an emotional game, and things might be said in terms that are less than diplomatic. Would it hurt to give the team a few minutes longer to decompress before answering questions, most of which are inane anyway?

It has been pointed out the Krzyzewski has simply adapted to the realities of today’s mercenary college basketball landscape. More schools are likely to follow this approach, which obviously can work, though it also shows what everyone knew all along, that big time college sports are more about winning than anything else and that student athlete thing is a quaint but outdated concept at least at the Division I level.