INDIANAPOLIS -- Four months is an eternity in the college basketball season, so to read too much into a nonconference game played back on Dec. 3 would be a mistake. But Wisconsin players also insist to ignore it entirely would be an equal oversight.
Because what transpired the night Duke stormed into Madison and annihilated the nets in an 80-70 victory against Wisconsin should not be forgotten. In the single greatest shooting display by an opponent in Kohl Center history, the Blue Devils connected on 65.2 percent of their shot attempts (30 of 46), secured one of the most significant early-season wins in college basketball and provided an important eye-opener for the Badgers.
"I don't think we played very well at all in that game," Badgers center Frank Kaminsky said. "Defensively, we gave up a lot, and offensively we looked lost at times."
It is a game players reflected on Sunday, a day before the teams would meet for the national championship at Lucas Oil Stadium. Wisconsin (36-3) has proven up to the task as the best team in program history, solidifying that status by knocking off previously undefeated Kentucky in the Final Four. Duke (34-4), meanwhile, has maintained its level of consistency all season. And so, Monday's game will represent a rematch of sorts, even if plenty has changed on the court.
"I think we're better," Badgers forward Sam Dekker said. "I think both teams are better. Over the course of a season, you go through a lot of changes and you learn a lot. That was only what, our eighth game of the season? Two days after we got back from the Bahamas. So both teams are completely different from then. We're playing better and we just jelled over time."
A few notable differences in Wisconsin's team now make that Dec. 3 game seem even longer ago than it already is. Dekker still hadn't recovered from an ankle injury he sustained during a preseason practice in October and scored only five points on 2 of 5 shooting in 24 minutes. And teammate Nigel Hayes performed well below his season averages, scoring four points on 1 of 5 shooting in 23 minutes.
During this NCAA tournament, Dekker is averaging 20.6 points per game and Hayes 12.2 points.
"We were talking about that right after our game, Sam and I," Hayes said. "We basically didn't play that game. That's how bad we were. We still feel that we're going to have a good chance due to the fact that Sam and I really didn't play. We were still awful in that game, but you can't really use that game because both teams are completely different now. And it's definitely motivating in the same way I had to make sure I didn't have the same performance last year versus Kentucky that I did this year."
Wisconsin also has had a change in point guard responsibilities. Traevon Jackson scored a career-high 25 points, including 17 in the second half, to keep the Badgers in the game. But Jackson broke his right foot during a game on Jan. 11 and did not return until the team's Sweet 16 game against North Carolina while playing a reserve role. In his place, Bronson Koenig has thrived. He scored only three points on 1 of 7 shooting against Duke earlier this season.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked whether he would have been surprised the two teams that night would meet again for the national championship.
"I wouldn't have been surprised about them," Krzyzewski said. "I would be a little bit about us with all the young guys we had. I mean, we're a young team. I thought for them, they weren't at full capacity. Dekker was playing injured. So we were realistic. We won the game, but I also knew that Wisconsin wasn't their best. The fact of us playing now, we both have earned it, to get here. Their road and our road has been a difficult one. We've responded.
"But it doesn't surprise me that Wisconsin's in it. Coming into the year, I thought they would be the best team in the country. And pretty much they have been. You know, it's just that Kentucky's undefeated performance overshadowed, I think, just how good Wisconsin has been until (Saturday) night where there were no shadows anymore."
Of course, Badgers coach Bo Ryan countered that seeing Duke opposite Wisconsin in the title game was not much of a surprise to him.
"A lot of people thought they had a pretty good team because they came in and spanked us at our place," Ryan said.
Like Wisconsin, Duke is also a different team at this stage of the season. The Blue Devils no longer have the services of Rasheed Sulaimon, who became the first player under Krzyzewski to be dismissed from the program. Sulaimon scored 14 points against Wisconsin on Dec. 3. Yet Badgers assistant coach Gary Close said he thought Duke was a better team now that it had its rotation figured out. And each team has gone on to produce incredibly efficient offensive seasons.
Wisconsin ranks first nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency at 128.5 points per 100 possessions. Duke ranks third in the same category at 121.7 points. Perhaps it is no surprise that the teams are led by two of the best players in the game, efficient big men in Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor. Though both players downplayed any notions of a one-on-one game within the game, it figures to be an important matchup to watch.
Players on each team noted both sides had grown significantly since their first meeting. But neither side has forgotten the result, and each will try to use whatever information available from that game to gain an advantage Monday night.
"You never know how a team's going to respond in huge games and in away games," Krzyzewski said. "So the thing I saw was they weren't nervous. I mean, you can't teach that. They had it. Win or lose, I was going to come away from that game knowing that this would be a team that wouldn't be afraid of the bright lights and the big stage."
Now, both teams will meet again under the brightest lights and the biggest stage the sport has to offer, with a national championship on the line.
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