Forgive me for injecting politics into sports, but I can't help feeling like a beleaguered voter as I look at the Final Four.
Duke would be Jeb Bush. Kentucky would be Hillary Clinton.
I would be ready for somebody new, and I suspect I'm not the only one.
Give us Elizabeth Warren or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or anybody whose family name hasn't been on the ballot since Reconstruction.
Give us Bucky Badger.
I could give you 100 reasons why you should pull for Wisconsin this weekend, though it really comes down to the fact it is nothing like the other two.
I know it's actually the other three. But Michigan State has been to about as many Final Fours as Duke. It just doesn't win them.
That makes Michigan State the Joe Biden of this field. An underdog for sure, but still too much a part of the basketball elite. And nothing oozes establishment like Duke and Kentucky.
The political analogy isn't perfect, though John Calipari probably has a personal email server in his basement that is programmed to be wiped clean if an NCAA investigator gets within 100 feet.
Like Duke, this year's Kentucky team hasn't succeeded solely by virtue of birth or being married to Bubba. Both teams might make a fine champion if elected.
But familiarity breeds fatigue. Out of a country of 320 million people and 351 Division I basketball programs, why must we always end up with the same old names?
I know. Because they have tradition, allure, recruits, coaching, money and fans. But that doesn't mean we can't get tired of it.
Before Jeb Duke, there was George W. Duke, George H.W. Duke, Dick Cheney Duke, Shane Battier Duke and Christian Laettner Duke. The Wildcats' lineage goes back ever further.
If you're part of the "Ready for Hillary/Kentucky" crowd, you think this overthrow movement is rooted in jealousy. You'd be right. But it's also part of our patriotic DNA.
America was founded on breaking away from a monarchy. Any schmoe can be elected president.
Wisconsin is just such a schmoe.
The Badgers actually won an NCAA basketball championship before Duke or Kentucky. It was 1941. They didn't make another Final Four until 2000.
Wisconsin had only eight winning seasons between 1954 and 1995. Dick Bennett revived Bucky Badger initially, and Bo Ryan has turned him into a viable contender.
He's done it the old-fashioned way, with gritty talent-free players who walk uphill 10 miles through the snow to practice every day and buy into the homespun wisdom of their crusty old coach.
That's not completely accurate, but it makes for a nice political ad. The truth is this year's team doesn't always make 12 passes before shooting.
One player, Sam Dekker, was actually a big-time signee. The rest would have received a recruiting letter from Kentucky only by mistake.
"If you look at the Wisconsin program as a whole, that's what coach recruited," Frank Kaminsky said. "He recruited guys that want to come in and work hard and make something of themselves."
Kaminsky is the ultimate example, having blossomed into one of the most versatile college big men since Laettner. The difference is 20 years from now you won't be seeing a "I Hate Frank Kaminsky" documentary on ESPN.
But will you look back and see a people's champion?
For all the Cinderella talk this time of year, the same group of scions usually prevails. The last true darkhorse winner was Villanova in 1985, or maybe UTEP in 1966.
I don't know about you, but I think the Hillary bumper sticker has it half-right. America is definitely ready.
Ready for Bucky!
Sports on 04/01/2015