1 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
2 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
3 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
4 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
5 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
6 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
7 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
8 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
9 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
10 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
11 of 11
Noah Willman
Keep calm and drink: State Street was a mixture of despondency and hope after the Blue Devils of Duke beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball national championship game. There's always next year.
For the second time in three days, thousands of Badger basketball fans took to State Street Monday night to commune after the final buzzer of the NCAA tournament sounded.
After Saturday night’s magnificent Final Four victory against the seemingly unstoppable Kentucky Wildcats, the crowd grew to more than 10,000 as jubilant fans chanted, danced and high-fived in the streets. Even the Madison Police Department was psyched, high-fiving fans in the street and, on Twitter, thanking them for behaving.
“Let’s get together and do this again Monday,” the MPD account tweeted. “You are the BEST!”
About half as many people gathered after the Badgers’ heartbreaking loss against Duke Monday night. There was chanting, there was dancing, but there were notably fewer high-fives as basketball fans came to grips with the painful ending to an exemplary season.
But even with emotions running high and the State Street bars packed to capacity, the championship loss brought little mayhem to the streets of Madison.
There were just five arrests Monday night, Madison Police Department spokesman Joel DeSpain says, with three of those involving physical detainment.
There was no property damage, but there were two “very small” fires -- most likely a result of dejected Badger fans ripping off their t-shirts and setting them afire, DeSpain says.
The crowd formed a “mosh pit,” and at least one reveler climbed and dangled from a lamppost (and was promptly arrested). Others did some crowd surfing. At one point, people lifted up and passed around a Badger fan in a wheelchair.
“That’s something we haven’t seen before,” DeSpain says.
