Final Four Recap

It's been a while since I've posted a blog but since I just got to experience the greatest season in Badgers history I thought I'd get back at it. This past weekend I was in Indy for one of the most anticipated Final Fours in history, and it was an awesome experience (until the last few minutes of the game Monday night, but I'll get to that later.)
Watching the Badgers knock off Kentucky on the biggest stage, the Final Four, was unbelievable. Quite possibly the biggest win in Badger sports history. Sending Big Blue Nation back home early was extremely satisfying after they assumed they would take over Indy for the weekend. It was an extremely stressful game to watch throughout, but it was great that the Badgers didn't let it come down to one possession at the end. They took control late and made their free throws. Solid games from Kaminsky and Dekker helped.
After all that it took just to beat Kentucky, they still had to face Duke on Monday. The Badgers played decent for most of the game, and even took control with a 9 point lead. But after that point, things just wouldn't go right. Shots weren't falling, they weren't getting calls, and Tyus Jones wouldn't miss a shot. They just didn't have enough to get it done, and that was disappointing. Us Badger fans have been waiting to celebrate a national championship, and this was probably our best opportunity for the forseeable future. Also, Duke doesn't need another national championship. Their fans that I saw in the stadium didn't even seem all that excited about winning it. Had the Badgers won? We would've drank Indy out of booze on Monday night.
That being said, if there's any silver lining, in the long run this Final Four and tournament will be remembered A LOT more for Wisconsin beating Kentucky rather than for Duke winning the championship. That was definitely a moment that will go down in history. The Badgers also had, in my opinion, one of the toughest roads a team has ever had to face in the tournament: Coastal Carolina (shouldn't have been a 16 seed, they could really shoot), Oregon, a solid 8 seed, then a talented North Carolina team, followed by Arizona (the team who many thought had the best chance to beat Kentucky, easily could've been a 1 seed), and then of course next was Kentucky, who everyone was claiming could possibly beat an NBA team. The Badgers made it through all of them. And ended up meeting up with Duke in the finals, just came up 5 points short. I'd say that's a pretty damn impressive run.
It might be a while before we see another Badger team like this one. Of course I expect them to finish no worse than 4th in the B1G,as they've always done under Bo Ryan, but there's likely gonna be some rebuilding next year. Sam Dekker is gonna go to the NBA, so it'll be up to Nigel and Bronson to step up next year. Also 2 years ago, no one would've expected Frank Kaminsky was going to end up being the national player of the year. There's definitely someone on the bench who will become a star, we'll just have to wait and see who it ends up being.

Also, this was the first time I've ever been to a Final Four, but I'm not sure if there's a better city than Indy to host it. The way things are, this event has to be held at an indoor football stadium, which narrows it down to only a few cities that can host it. Most of these giant football domes seem like they're set outside of downtown or far away from the city. Lucas Oil Stadium is right downtown, which made for an awesome weekend. Bars were a short walk away,  which made it easy and convenient to pregame or celebrate after beating Kentucky. The Convention Center which hosted the Fanfest was right across the street from the stadium. There were also free concerts which included some pretty big names located right downtown. All in all, it made for an awesome weekend. Several drinks were had, and I'm still trying to get caught up on sleep. Despite all the money spent and the disappointing end Monday night, beating Kentucky made it all worth it .