INDIANAPOLIS — After Wisconsin stunned previously unbeaten Kentucky here to advance to the NCAA championship game on Monday night, Badgers coach Bo Ryan got an important reminder from Mark Johnson, the coach of the school’s women’s hockey team.
“You know after [the 1980 US hockey team] beat Russia, we had to beat Finland,” Johnson told Ryan.
“Most people think that Russia was the gold medal game,” Ryan said. “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.”
Just as the American hockey team had to collect itself emotionally after upending the USSR in the 1980 Olympics in order to beat Finland in the gold medal game, so too must Wisconsin gather itself after taking out Kentucky as it heads into a matchup with Duke.
(That analogy, of course, makes Kentucky the USSR, which fans outside Big Blue Nation might agree with.)
“Yes, we know we’ve got 40 more [minutes], as I’ve said a thousand times,” Ryan said. “But we know we got some work to do. I think last night’s game simply says, Okay, it puts you in position now to go after the championship.”
Beyond the Finland parallel, there are also a number of interesting historical comparisons to the 1991 Final Four, which was won by Duke in Indianapolis.
That year, UNLV came into the Final Four as an undefeated powerhouse only to be upended by Duke 79-77 in the national semifinals.
Duke scored the upset one year after getting crushed, 103-73, in the 1990 title game by a Vegas team featuring Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony.
The Blue Devils then went on to beat Kansas, 72-65, in the national championship game for what was Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s first NCAA title.
“They didn’t think we would beat Vegas,” Coach K said. “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. Christian [Laettner] and Bobby [Hurley] and Brian Davis did a good job of that, too, of moving us to the next thing because we had to beat a really good Kansas team on Monday night here.”
Fast forward to 2015 and Wisconsin hopes to avenge an earlier loss to Duke this season and replicate what Duke did in ’91.
One year after losing to Kentucky in the national semifinals, Wisconsin took out an undefeated juggernaut in the national semifinals.
Now, just as Duke beat Kansas for the title, the Badgers are hoping to knock off Duke for their first crown since 1941.
“Wisconsin was every bit as good as Kentucky,” Coach K said. “And Kentucky’s great, don’t get me wrong. Wisconsin’s a great team. So to me it wasn’t surprising whoever won that game. In 1991, we were not surprised that we could win. We had three guys that could match up with them. We had the best player on the court in Grant Hill, but he was a freshman. Then we had Laettner and Hurley. We weren’t shabby. We were pretty good. In order to beat an undefeated team, you have to be really good.”
