Bo Ryan's 'Finland,' Coach K's mirror to the past

INDIANAPOLIS—As a four-time national champion powered by one of the game's timeless leaders and a factory that turns McDonald's All-Americans into NBA players, Duke is a national power on the college basketball map.

So it was only logical that heading into Monday's national championship game, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan compared the Blue Devils to... Finland?

"I was reminded I can't tell you by how many people, 'Hey, Bo, in 1980, you know after we beat Russia, we had to beat Finland,'" Ryan said, referencing the 1980 United States hockey team that upset the juggernaut Soviet Union and later won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics. "Most people think that Russia was the gold medal game. I think it was Finland, wasn't it? I've been reminded on a few text messages that Finland is Duke, both really good teams. Duke is a really good team. I think Finland was a good team because they got to the finals."

Wisconsin slayed its version of the Soviet Union Saturday night, beating previously-undefeated Kentucky 71-64 to earn the right to play Duke Monday for the national title. Despite doing something no team had done this season in vanquishing the Wildcats, the Badgers are aware they have not yet reached the end destination.

A showdown between Kentucky and Duke for the national title was the most popular selection in ESPN's bracket challenge, with 22.2 percent of the 11.6 million entered brackets predicting that matchup. Although that game would have featured 16 McDonald's All-Americans and likely would have obliterated record TV ratings for a national championship game, the Wisconsin-Duke matchup provides an even more compelling storyline, one more recent than the 35-year-old Miracle on Ice.

The Badgers have a chance to accomplish exactly what the Blue Devils did in 1991 to capture head coach Mike Krzyzewski's first national title.

Duke's 1989-90 season ended in heartbreak, a 103-73 blowout at the hands of UNLV in the national championship game. But bolstered by the play of Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley and the addition of standout freshman Grant Hill, the 1990-91 Blue Devils found their way back to the Final Four—in Indianapolis—where they got a second shot at the Runnin' Rebels, who entered the rematch undefeated on the year at a perfect 34-0.

Late free throws by Laettner ensured that there would be no perfect season, and Duke went on to beat Kansas two nights later, the first of back-to-back titles. But first, the Blue Devils had to regroup from what was at the time the biggest win in Krzyzewski's tenure in Durham.

"It wasn't just the emotion in the locker room. I thought we handled that well. It was the emotion in the hotel, where our fans were literally delirious," Krzyzewski said Sunday. "They didn't think we would beat Vegas. We were the ones who thought we could beat Vegas. We had to make sure we didn't go into their environment, into their place."

Wisconsin's route to the title game has been eerily similar.

The Badgers looked poised to reach this stage last year at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, but a 3-pointer by Kentucky's Aaron Harrison in the final seconds propelled the Wildcats into the title game instead. The loss helped convince star Frank Kaminsky to return for his senior season and served as a motivating factor all year, until Saturday night, when Wisconsin exacted its revenge—though they didn't label it a revenge game—by ruining Kentucky's bid at perfection.

Ryan guided Division III Wisconsin-Platteville to four national titles, the first coming in 1991—the same year Krzyzewski cut down the nets for the first time—and now gets his first chance at a Division I championship in the same city where Krzyzewski reached the pinnacle.

After the upset against Kentucky—the national champion in 48 percent of ESPN brackets—Wisconsin was mobbed at the team hotel, just like the Blue Devils were after knocking off UNLV.

"As soon as we walked in we weren’t really expecting that many people," sophomore Nigel Hayes said. "When we got to the top balcony, you looked down and it looked like a rock concert. They were just waiting for one of us to jump off and crowd surf."

Krzyzewski credited the leaders of his 1991 team—Laettner, Hurley and Brian Davis—with controlling the team's emotions and refocusing them for the task of preparing for the Jayhawks. Ryan's bevy of veterans—Kaminsky, senior Josh Gasser and junior Sam Dekker among them—have already done the same, noting Sunday that talk in the locker room after Saturday's win had already shifted toward Duke.

"For us as a group, the players and coaches, it was never a surprise [to beat Kentucky], it was never an 'Uh-oh, we've got to somehow regroup for this Duke game,' the hangover effect," Gasser said. "We're prepared for it."

Krzyzewski noted during his press conference Sunday that moving on from his team's 20-point victory against Michigan State will not be easy, either, though that win did not carry the magnitude of what Wisconsin did two hours later.

The ability to put the past in the past could be a deciding factor Monday night.

"When you win a Final Four game, no matter who you beat, it's huge. And we're all human beings," Krzyzewski said. "You have to fight human nature of wanting to stay in that moment for a little bit longer before moving on to the next moment. I think for both teams, the team that moves on the best and the quickest will have a little bit of an advantage."

Asked about the similarities between the 1991 Blue Devils and 2015 Badgers, Gasser said he is focusing on winning the national title, no matter who it comes against. But the precedent set by Duke doesn't hurt.

"I'm not necessarily a believer [in fate], but I hope it happens," he said.