The Blue Devils Rule College Hoops

For the fifth time in the history of the program the Duke Blue Devils were able to cut down the nets as National Champions. This title comes after a 68-63 win over the Wisconsin Badgers at Lucas Oil Stadium. This national title game had a little bit of everything. There were 13 lead changes in the first half alone, there were freshman leading the offensive charge. Oh and Duke overcame a nine-point second-half deficit and foul trouble to its two biggest stars to pull away with the crown. Of course, what would a title game be without a controversial call thrown in there too.

Duke freshmen guards Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen led the Blue Devils with 23 and 16 points, respectively. Duke held the largest lead of the opening half at six points. Wisconsin did not shoot well early, but managed 11 second chance points as they erased the deficit. At the half, the game was tied 31–31, marking the such tie since 1988. Wisconsin, which lead the nation in fewest committed fouls per game, recorded just two first half fouls. Duke meanwhile committed seven fouls. Jones and Allen really stepped up their game, mostly because Jahill Okafor sat the final 4:47 of the first half after picking up two fouls. Okafor had 10 points despite spending most of the second half on the bench, with foul issues. Okafor was outplayed by Badgers senior center Frank Kaminsky. Kaminsky finished with a double double, with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He played quite well, helping keep this Badgers team in this basketball game all night.

When the 2nd half started, Wisconsin came out hotter than Duke. Wisconsin scored first in the second half and held the lead for most of the half. Both Okafor and Justise Winslow spent extended periods on the bench due to foul trouble, which put Duke at their disadvantage, allowing the Badgers to grow their lead. By the time the game hit the 13:25 mark, Wisconsin had grown the lead to its largest of the day at nine points. Duke woke up at that point and began to narrow the gap. Even as Wisconsin was building a lead, the foul situation was reversing itself – by the 11:43, game fouls were even at 9 for each team. However, Okafor picked up his fourth foul at the 9:18 mark, sending him back to the bench. Duke looked to be in trouble with their best player sitting on the bench. This is where Tyrus Jones really started to pick up the slack and take the game over. Jones had 19 points in the second half as the Blue Devil guards got more aggressive in driving to the basket. This hard charging offense by Duke started to throw Wisconsin off their game, as the Badgers started getting called for more fouls. Jones wasn't the only Blue Devil who asserted his will in the 2nd half, Grayson Allen did the same thing. Hell at one point Allen had outscored the Badgers 8-3 in the 2nd half.

Then we got hit with a little controversy. With 1:53 left, a loose ball went out of bounds and the officials initially ruled that Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig touched it last, awarding the ball to Duke. After a length replay review, the officials announced that the call would stand even though it appeared that the ball may have been last touched by Duke's Justise Winslow instead. Here's the picture proof (Courtesy of USA Today Sports). You can clearly see in the picture hitting the ball going off Winslow's finger. The vine and videos that have shown this same shot online have backed up the opinion that the call was wrong. According to reports from Yahoo! Sports, many were perplexed (and rightfully so) by the officials explanation of the call that "they just couldn't see anything." How could you not see anything. the video shows the ball going off his finger? Human fingers don't bend that way on their own. I understand that the officials are humans and that they are going to make mistakes, its human nature. But come on this was obvious that the ball hit off Winslow and the ball should have gone back to the Badgers. The ball went back to Duke and on the ensuing possession, freshman Tyus Jones drilled a three-pointer to extend Duke’s lead to eight and all but put an end to the Badgers’ title dreams.

This championship win is the fifth in nine trips to the title game for Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his third championship won in the city of Indianapolis. Duke had done it twice before, beating the Kansas Jayhawks in 1991 and then beating the Butler Bulldogs in 2010. Mike Krzyzewski just broke a tie with legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, who won four NCA titles at Kentucky and is now second only to John Wooden, who won the tournament 10 times at UCLA. The Blue Devils are now tied with Indiana and archrival North Carolina with five championships, trailing only Kentucky (eight) and UCLA (11) in college basketball history. Wisconsin was playing in its first championship game since winning the title in 1941, the third year of the NCAA tournament's existence.

When the tournament was over, the all tournament team was named. Sam Dekker of Wisconsin, Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin, Andrew Harrison of Kentucky, Justise Winslow of Duke and the Most Outstanding Player of the entire tournament in Tyus Jones of Duke were named to the all tournament team.

Congratulations to the Duke Blue Devils for winning their 5th National Title in the sport of basketball in school history!