NCAA Tournament 2015 Duke Vs. Wisconsin: Preview, Predictions, TV Info, Live Stream and Betting Odds [POLL]

And then there were two… from Midnight Madness last October to the March Madness of the past few weeks, the college basketball season comes to a riveting climax on Monday night when the Duke Blue Devils and the Wisconsin Badgers meet in Indianapolis.

The game that will crown the 2015 national champion of NCCA men’s basketball is the second matchup on the season between the ACC powerhouse and the Big 10 champion. The two teams first met on December 3^rd in Madison, WI where the Blue Devils won 80-70.

Experts and analysts raved on that night how the matchup could be a potential preview of the National Championship game in April, and they were most certainly right as five months later the two clubs meet again on the hardwood.

We’re very excited for this game. After going a whopping 13 for 14 on our predictions to this point, we know we need to live up to our readers’ expectations. We wrote previously that Wisconsin vs. Kentucky was the true National Championship in our book. Meaning, Kentucky was the #1 overall seed in the tournament and the best team in the country. Wisconsin was thought of as the one team that could challenge them as nearly nobody thought Michigan State or Duke could beat the Wildcats.

With that said, would we stay the course and predict Wisconsin to beat Duke? Or do we believe that the Badgers are destined for a let down after upsetting the Wildcats and ending their perfect season? Here is our prediction for the 2015 NCAA National Championship game.

In a season chalked full of redemptions, Wisconsin beats Duke in the rematch and hoists the National Championship trophy: Fans rejoice, this should turn out to be a tremendous title game. We would not be surprised to see Duke do what they did in December and beat the Badgers, especially, after the Badgers big victory over Kentucky on Saturday night.

Duke is familiar with the current challenge in front of Wisconsin. In 1991, Duke defeated an undefeated UNLV team in the semifinal of the Final Four. When Mike Kryzewski and his team returned to the hotel that evening, it was a madhouse.

“They didn’t think we would beat Vegas,” he told the media in Indianapolis on Sunday. “We were the ones who thought we could beat Vegas.”

Similarly, Wisconsin defeated Kentucky on Saturday in a game that must have felt remarkably like the national championship. Especially considering that Frank Kaminsky and many players returned for their senior season for a chance to get revenge on Kentucky after last year’s Final Four. Often times, there can be an emotional let down after a big win, and playing just two days later doesn’t help.

However, Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin team is stocked full of veterans. They know that beating Kentucky was not the end game. Lifting the school’s first national championship trophy since 1941 is. Sam Dekker has been the best player of the tournament and the matchup between him and Justise Winslow will be fun to watch.

The projected no. 1 pick in the NBA draft, Jahlil Okafor, will have to go up against the AP Player of the Year in Kaminsky. This game has intriguing storylines all around. The difference to me will come on the defensive end. The Badgers clamped down on Kentucky during the final few minutes of the game on Saturday and closed out the team that was the best in college at closing teams out. Against Duke, they will need to do the same.

Duke’s defense is to switch all screens. Ryan knows this and he will exploit it to perfection on Monday night. Look for Wisconsin to seek mismatches off switched screens in order to isolate Kaminsky and Dekker in the post. If the Badgers do this and take advantage of guards defending their bigs, they will win the game.

Betting Favorite: Wisconsin -1

The game tips off at 9:18 EST from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. It can be watched live on CBS from your television and will be live streamed here. If you prefer to watch the game from your home, you can download the NCAA March Madness mobile app.