Freshman Tyus Jones scored a team high 23 points to help the Duke Blue Devils win the 2015 National Championship, defeating the Wisconsin Badgers 68-63.
Duke Wins 2015 National Championship
That said, Jones wasn’t the freshman that sparked the Blue Devils when it looked like they were going to fade away against the Badgers. That was Grayson Allen, an overlooked guard off the bench that had a string of three minutes that changed the entire complexion of the game. Allen tipped the ball away from the Badgers Traevon Jackson, then managed to draw a foul after hustling down the loose ball. Allen was pumped up, and then took the ball hard to the rim in the next two possessions. The momentum shifted as Allen screamed at his bench in passion. He would end the game with 16 points.
Duke and Wisconsin would go back and forth in the first half, but neither team gained an advantage after twenty minutes. The second half would start in Wisconsin’s favor, as the Badgers were up by as many as nine with Blue Devil big man Jahlil Okafor and wingman Justise Winslow both on the bench in foul trouble. The smaller lineup forced Coach Mike Krzyzewski to put Amile Jefferson on Badger Frank Kaminsky, a move that turned out to pay-off. Jefferson helped limit Kaminsky in the last few minutes, and gave Okafor some relief from getting his fifth foul.
In the final few minutes, Duke went to their closer. Of Tyus Jones’ 23 points, 19 of those came in the second half, and three of those were the biggest points of the game. His three came after a long review that seemed to wrongly give the ball to Duke with just a few minutes remaining. Nonetheless, it was the Blue Devils’ ball, and Jones — who would be named the Most Outstanding Player — would come down to hit the Badgers with a dagger straight to the heart.
With all this talk about Duke’s high performance players, it would be a unjust to ignore Wisconsin’s prime-time players. Frank Kaminsky went for 21 points and 12 rebounds, and took Jahlil Okafor to school on a couple of post moves. Nigel Hayes shot the ball well enough to go for 13 points, but only had one rebound. The opposite was true for Sam Dekker, who didn’t shoot the ball well, but had eight rebounds. The Badgers great offense froze in the most important time in the game, and it came back to bite Wisconsin in the end.
Duke’s win may not have been sweeter for anyone other than Quinn Cook, though. Cook, a senior, was the ultimate leader of this team, and made sacrifices that were season-changing, including going off the ball and letting Jones be the team’s point guard. While Cook might not have had double digit points, or the flashy moments, he certainly deserves praise for the job he did this season.
In the end, Coach Krzyzewski took home his fifth national title, and that moved him to second best of all time — behind John Wooden and his ten. In that type of season that included Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win, winning the ultimate prize only seems fitting.
