Wisconsin Badgers 74 year championship drought is longest in tournament history
The 74 years in between NCAA Championship game appearances is the longest such stretch in men’s tournament history.
AFBL Wisconsin Wins Semi
It’s been a while since the Wisconsin Badgers won a national championship. In fact, the last time the Badgers were on top of the college basketball world, a guy by the name of Ted Williams was chasing a .400 batting average for Boston.
Unlike the Red Sox that season in 1941, the Badgers did claim a championship. That was a full 74 years in the past though, which makes it the longest span in between two title game appearances in NCAA tournament history.
On Monday, coach Bo Ryan and company will attempt to capture the school’s first Division I basketball title in nearly three-quarters of a century. Looking to prevent history is perennial powerhouse Duke, led by the legendary Mike Krzyzewski. “Coach K” will be seeking his, as well as the entire program’s, fifth championship.
Think about how much history has passed in between now and the last time Wisconsin was vying for a NCAA basketball championship. World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Cold, and Iraq Wars. America has had 13 different presidents, dating back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was in the middle of an unprecedented run as president at the time.
Major League Baseball has since been desegregated, the pitcher’s mound was lowered by a full six inches. Baseball has since had two new home run kings. The Super Bowl was born as a result of the AFL-NFL merger. There are plenty more examples of history related to sports, however, for the sake of time, we will just mention the following.
College basketball had yet to incorporate a three pointer, something that would not be available on a full time basis in the professional level either until the late 1960s. It was a much different time.
Just to give one final note of perspective on how long it has been since Madison has had a team competing for a title this late in the NCAA basketball season, two members of The Beatles had not even come into existence yet; Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
So, it’s been a while.
[H/T ESPN SportsCenter]
AFBL Wisconsin Wins Semi
It’s been a while since the Wisconsin Badgers won a national championship. In fact, the last time the Badgers were on top of the college basketball world, a guy by the name of Ted Williams was chasing a .400 batting average for Boston.
Unlike the Red Sox that season in 1941, the Badgers did claim a championship. That was a full 74 years in the past though, which makes it the longest span in between two title game appearances in NCAA tournament history.
On Monday, coach Bo Ryan and company will attempt to capture the school’s first Division I basketball title in nearly three-quarters of a century. Looking to prevent history is perennial powerhouse Duke, led by the legendary Mike Krzyzewski. “Coach K” will be seeking his, as well as the entire program’s, fifth championship.
Think about how much history has passed in between now and the last time Wisconsin was vying for a NCAA basketball championship. World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Cold, and Iraq Wars. America has had 13 different presidents, dating back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was in the middle of an unprecedented run as president at the time.
Major League Baseball has since been desegregated, the pitcher’s mound was lowered by a full six inches. Baseball has since had two new home run kings. The Super Bowl was born as a result of the AFL-NFL merger. There are plenty more examples of history related to sports, however, for the sake of time, we will just mention the following.
College basketball had yet to incorporate a three pointer, something that would not be available on a full time basis in the professional level either until the late 1960s. It was a much different time.
Just to give one final note of perspective on how long it has been since Madison has had a team competing for a title this late in the NCAA basketball season, two members of The Beatles had not even come into existence yet; Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
So, it’s been a while.
[H/T ESPN SportsCenter]
Wisconsin-Kentucky most-watched Final Four game in 19 years
By Cameron La Fontaine 1h ago
A stellar Final Four game between Kentucky and Wisconsin on Saturday was the most watched semifinal game in 19 years.
Wisconsin and Kentucky set a record on Saturday, unfortunately for the Wildcats, it wasn’t the record of going 39-0. The game ended with generating the most television viewers ever before on a college basketball game according to the NCAA.
The average of 22.6 million total viewers per network created the largest audience ever for a college basketball game. And are you at all surprised?
The Kentucky Wildcats, the college basketball dream team, filled with stars like Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker and more were 38-0 going into the national semi-final in hopes of becoming the first college basketball team to ever go 40-0 and win the championship.
The Wildcats, led by head coach John Calipari, were crushed when they let a slim late-game slip away and Wisconsin led by senior Frank Kaminsky and junior Sam Dekker took home the 71-64 win spoiling Kentucky’s perfect season.
It was as if it was written in a book. Big bad Kentucky who everyone other than their obscenely large fan base wants to go down and a fan favorite Wisconsin, storming in and dismantling Kentucky late in the second half much in thanks to a Sam Dekker three pointer followed by a charge call drawn by Dekker on Trey Lyles.
According to the NCAA, the combined viewership of the two national semi-final games was up 35 percent over last year and the NCAA Tournament as a whole has had a six percent increase over 2014’s NCAA Tournament.
Without Kentucky in the national championship, one has to wonder if the game will get less views than it would have if the Wildcats were in. Granted Duke and Wisconsin have huge fan bases and anyone who loves sports should and will be watching the game, but maybe Wildcats fans nationwide take the trend to not watch the game. We’ll see if ratings are effected negatively, or if the national championship proceeds to bring in the most viewers the Final Four has seen in 19 years.
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