We Are All Wisconsin Tonight

Tonight is it, the NCAA title game between Duke and Wisconsin. It’s not necessarily the sexiest matchup — I openly admit I was pulling for Duke/Kentucky just for how historical that’d be — but it’s a fantastic one all the same. On one side, you’ve got a Duke team with the kind of elite one-and-done athletes that Coach K hasn’t necessarily had in the program often in the past, including potential #1 overall picks in Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow, and they looked downright vicious in that beatdown of Michigan State on Saturday. On a pure talent level, this might be the best team Duke has had since the early 90s. And on the other side you’ve got a lovable Wisconsin squad who embodies everything great about college basketball. Fun, exciting, resilient when you need them to be. A Wisconsin team who’s been responsible for memorable moment after memorable moment in the tourney:

Honestly, it’s easy to blindly root against Duke because, well, they’re Duke. And it’s easy to root for Wisconsin after they stuck it to an oversatisfied Kentucky team to end their would-be unbeaten season. But this year it’s about more than that. The stakes are too high. We should all want Wisconsin to win just for this guy:

Well, if we’re accurately reflecting the physical toll of the past weekend at the Final Four, Wisconsin has to win for this guy:

Do we want another Duke title win featuring smug Coach K preaching post-game about teamwork and family while Okafor, Winslow, and co. take large brown sacks with dollar signs on them to the NBA? Do we want a Wisconsin team that’s overcome every set of odds against them through sheer whiteness unselfishness to come up empty when it matters most? Do we want a two hour Rundown of Pres shouting and drinking tears while Big Cat contemplates a samurai suicide that might require a Valyrian steel sword from Game of Thrones to cut through?

So tonight, we have to move past Barstool’s penchant for rooting for each others’ failures. We’ll put aside our own alma mater. Tonight, we are all Wisconsin. We are all #chickenfries. We want this for Wisconsin but, more than anything, we NEED this for Big Cat.*

*and CharlieWisco I guess, assuming you’re not a veteran