Duke vs. Wisconsin: 5 things you should know about the 2015 national championship game

There is no major American sport more defined by its postseason than college basketball. In turn, the sport’s champion takes on a larger role than most when it comes to how a particular season winds up being remembered. That can be a bit of a problem with a postseason format that lends itself to the potential of a team that hasn’t been anywhere near one of the season’s best ultimately claiming the sport’s top prize.

The problem with Connecticut winning the 2014 national championship wasn’t that the Huskies weren’t the best team in the country, it’s that they weren’t one of the 15 best teams in the country. Every game since November, all the upsets and buzzer-beaters and storylines, it all wound up leading to this extremely flawed squad being the last one standing. Impossible to predict runs are going to happen every now and then in a sport set up this way, but it still couldn’t help but make what had been an overwhelmingly fun and exciting season feel just a bit unsatisfying.

That’s not going to be an issue when it comes to 2014-15, as the final game of what has been yet another overwhelmingly entertaining ride figures to be a better representative of the beautiful journey. Duke and Wisconsin have been near the top of the title contenders conversation all season long, and each owns one of the only two players who were really in the national Player of the Year discussion from late January on. Oh, and they play the same position and will be matching up against one another.

Monday night’s finale from Lucas Oil Stadium has all the makings of a classic. Here are the five most important things you should know before you take it in.

Kaminsky and Okafor have been the only two players mentioned in any national Player of the Year discussion for the past two months, so the fact that they’ll be matching up against one another in the final game of the season is more than a little bit exciting.

Outside of playing the same position and being really good at it, there aren’t a whole lot of similarities between the superstars. It’s a senior vs. a freshman, a guy who has been a surefire lottery pick since he was 16 vs. one who struggled to get on the court during his first two college seasons, and a goofy outspoken veteran vs. a quiet youngster who prefers to keep to himself.

No game is as simple as one player vs. another, but there are reasons why Kaminsky-Okafor is garnering so much attention, and they’re justified.

Despite being one of the tournament favorites, Wisconsin was put in a region with what seemed to be easily the strongest No. 2 seed in Pac-12 champion Arizona, and was also stuck on the same side of the bracket as perfect Kentucky. Not only did the Badgers fail to avoid either of those behemoths on the road to the title game, they didn’t catch any hurdle that wound up being shorter than it was supposed to be.

If Wisconsin knocks off fellow top seed Duke on Monday night, it will become the first national champion since the NCAA began seeding the tournament in 1979 to earn the title by taking down the best possible seed it could have faced in every round of the Big Dance.

Here’s the Badgers’ complete road:

Round of 64: Defeated No. 16 Coastal Carolina, 86-72

Round of 32: Defeated No. 8 Oregon, 72-65

Sweet 16: Defeated No. 4 North Carolina, 79-72

Elite Eight: Defeated No. 2 Arizona, 85-78

Final Four: Defeated No. 1 Kentucky, 71-64

National Championship: vs. No. 1 Duke

As far as most impressive championship runs are concerned, I’m not sure any would be more impressive than the 2014-15 Badgers’. Taking down a 4/5 tournament favorite that just happened to enter the national semifinal game with a 38-0 record speaks loudly enough, but there’s also handling a North Carolina team that was finally playing up to its potential at the perfect time, and then a regional final against Arizona that was essentially a de facto road game at the Staples Center.

Villanova’s path to its “miracle” championship in 1988 included taking down two No. 1 seeds and a pair of No. 2 seeds, but the Wildcats had the benefit of playing second-seeded Memphis State, and not top seed Oklahoma, in their first Final Four game. Arizona took down three No. 1 seeds on its way to the ‘97 title, but its other three games -- including a regional final -- were against double digit seeds.

As far as toughest roads to the title are concerned, a win over Duke is the only thing keeping Wisconsin from being king.

SB Nation presents: Why Wisconsin will win the national title

There’s going to be hoards of “two totally different teams” talk whenever there’s a postseason rematch between a pair of teams that met early on in the year, but in this case, that talk is more legit than usual.

The identity of the two teams is also completely different than it was in the first meeting. Back then, Duke was an unstoppable offensive force that wasn’t particularly interested in playing defense, while Wisconsin was going to beat everybody, 50-48. Now, the Blue Devils are entering the title game surrendering just 55.0 points per game in the tournament so far, while the Badgers are the current owners of the modern record for offensive efficiency in a season.

Despite all these differences, history has a way of repeating itself when it comes to college basketball’s postseason. The last three times two teams that faced each other earlier in the season played for the national title, the team that won the regular season meeting wound up cutting down the nets. The most recent instance was in 2012, when Kentucky claimed its second win over Kansas in as many tries that year.

Wisconsin was actually on the flip side of a similar phenomenon earlier in the tournament. The previous eight times teams had met in a regional final game in consecutive seasons, the winner of the first game had gone on to win the second time as well. The Badgers made it nine in a row by knocking Arizona out in the Elite Eight for a second straight time.

SB Nation presents: Why Duke will win the NCAA Tournament

Here’s a slightly less scientific reason to bet on the Blue Devils: nine of the last 10 national champions have had blue as one of their primary school colors. The lone exception? Louisville in 2013.

Here’s a slightly more scientific bonus fact: Duke has already won national championship games in Indianapolis in 1991 and 2010. That 2010 team began the tournament with 29 wins and needed to go through a Houston regional to make it to Indy, a pair of facts that can also be attributed to this Blue Devil squad.

Those other two games were two of the more memorable championship games in recent memory. There’s no reason to expect Monday night’s tilt won’t follow suit.