Kentucky vs. Duke is the Final the NCAA Tournament Needs

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The 2015 NCAA Tournament has been one of the best, most compelling sessions in recent memory, combining major upsets with dominant performances from some of the country’s best players. But with apologies to the fine folks of Michigan State and Wisconsin, there’s only one final that would be a fitting outcome. We need the clash of the titans, Kentucky vs. Duke.

Handing another title to one of the nation’s blue-blood programs won’t sit well with the demographic who buys into the “everyone has a chance!” ethos of March Madness. Many people watch the tournament because they like to be thrown for a loop, and two No. 1 seeds battling it out for the title is anticlimactic for that crowd. Tough luck. From a purely selfish perspective, I want the chance to watch two of the best players in the class do battle. There’s something to be said for Tom Izzo’s bunch scrapping their way to another Final Four, or Frank Kaminsky’s ascent to becoming one of the country’s best players.  What’s at stake, though, is an opportunity for a high-profile prospect battle that rarely comes along in the one-and-done era.

Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns spent the latter half of this season jockeying for draft position, and may have a chance to go head-to-head with a national championship, draft stock and personal pride on the line. The title game carries significance regardless of individual and team context, but additional personal juice ramps the atmosphere up a notch.

Think back to Greg Oden’s freshman campaign at Ohio State, which culminated in a title game appearance against the defending champion Florida Gators. The stakes were different for both sides; Florida’s returning players were hoping for a shot at collective immortality with back-to-back titles, while Oden gave us one last chance to savor a budding star. It helped that both sides lived up to the hype — Oden poured in 25 and 12 boards, Florida triumphed as victors — but the occasion had the feel of a heavyweight clash. It didn’t matter if you were a diehard or a casual college fan, this was must-see TV.

In many ways, that clash is what we’d hope for in a Kentucky-Duke battle. Kentucky’s undefeated bid is the most compelling college basketball story in quite some time, and no one has the power to stop it like Jahlil Okafor. He’d of course have to deal with two likely lottery picks in Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein, the analogues for Al Horford and Joakim Noah.

Okafor and Towns have rarely been challenged by opponents this season — not many college basketball teams have access to athletic behemoths that can deal with them in the post — so getting to see them go up against one another before they (likely) jump into the draft pool would be quite the sight. These occasions are usually limited to early-season showcases, when teams play out-of-conference opponents and all we have are preseason expectations to base our hype on. With a whole season to digest and appreciate the talents of two monumental freshmen, we are on the verge of an anomaly, the Mayweather-Pacquiao of college hoops.

Silencing several inaccurate tropes would also be a stellar byproduct of freshmen-led teams clashing in the final. When Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker bowed out prematurely last season, tired conversations about AAU basketball undermining development spread like wildfire, bleeding into the seemingly annual “How do we fix college basketball?” discussion. The reality is that a single-elimination format leaves the field susceptible to objectively worse teams and talent advancing through the bracket. Making blanket statements about the state of the game based on how a wacky tournament turns out is silly, and quieting the rabble-rousers for at least one year would be community service the basketball community needs.

Everyone watches the sport for their own reasons; maybe you like the story of an underdog, or maybe you simply can’t stomach Coach K having a chance to win again. But I want to see the best teams and talent talent play, to watch compelling stories play out surrounding the best college basketball has to offer. Kentucky and Duke give me that in spades, and it’s the dream final my fingers are crossed for.