Wisconsin Can Be Hero Against Duke, Save Sports World From Blue Devils

Sometimes in sports, rooting against a team is just as much fun as rooting for a team. There is no greater example of that than Duke University.

A Blue Devils win over Wisconsin on Monday night will represent a win for Duke students, alumni and bandwagon jumpers everywhere. A win for the Badgers, however, is a win for humanity and all that is right in the world.

Wisconsin is far from any sort of a scrappy underdog, but it still has a chance to be the nation’s hoops darling if it can knock off Duke and win the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1941. The Badgers can be America’s team for one night, if they’re able to capture the crown.

Hating Duke is one of sports’ greatest pastimes, which stems from one admittedly simple and petty reason: Duke is good. We’re conditioned at this point to build things up only to tear them down, and that only intensifies for a team like Duke. The Blue Devils were built up decades ago and since then have made permanent residence among college basketball’s elite.

Duke’s also easy to hate because it’s just stale. With the oversaturation of media, it’s made even worse. Just think about how many times you’ve seen tight-lipped Mike Krzyzewski (who actually kind of looks like a devil) standing on the sideline in the big game. We’ve seen this movie over and over and over again, and isn’t it time for someone new? That’s why there’s near rejoice when Duke is eliminated from the tournament.

A lot of it has to do with money. According to BBState.com, Duke spent more than $14 million on its basketball program in 2014. That’s second in the entire country, to just Louisville and Kentucky. To put that in perspective, Wisconsin ranked 29th in the country with a nearly $7.6 million budget. Those are the kinds of numbers that make you wonder if Duke fans also root for the house in blackjack.

But perhaps the biggest things that grind our gears about Duke actually are the little things. It’s always the little things. It’s the slapping of the floor on defense. It’s Christian Laettner. It’s J.J. Redick. Don’t even get started on the Cameron Crazies.

Truth be told, they’re the perfect foil for the Cinderella story that fits so perfectly in college basketball and the tournament. Duke is one of the few college basketball Goliaths, and it never gets old seeing Goliath take a rock to the head. It was awesome in 2012 when 15-seed Lehigh upset Duke in the first round. Just as awesome last season when Mercer won. And there’s reason why if this last-second, half-court shot from Gordon Hayward found a way to fall, it would have been the greatest play in college basketball history.

(Yes, even better than this).

What probably will happen, though, is that Duke will win Monday night. Because even when the Blue Devils don’t win — and they have just one national championship in the last 15 years — it still feels like they always win.

So on Monday night, we’re all Badgers. At least those among us who are able to tell right from wrong, good from evil. It’s the one time the rest of the college hoops world finds common ground with Kentucky fans.

Oh, speaking of, take it away, guys …