This is apparently footage from the Sheboygan Buffalo Wild Wings, where University of Wisconsin fans celebrated the Badgers’ 71-64 upset win over the previously undefeated Kentucky Wildcats and local hero Sam Dekker’s upcoming trip to the men’s national title game. The video, which was uploaded late on Saturday by a user who listed her hometown as Sheboygan on other social media, is titled “Sam’s hometown reaction to win over Kentucky.”
Dekker played an integral role in Wisconsin’s stunning victory, scoring 16 points for the game and drilling a critical three-point shot to break a 60-60 deadlock with just under two minutes left to play. The Badgers would not relinquish the lead from that point on.
Dekker is a big deal in Wisconsin, and an even bigger deal in the 50,000-population town of Sheboygan. In a profile on Friday, Sports Illustrated described Dekker’s rise to fame in the land of cheese-heads:
Recognition has followed Dekker since he was a high school sophomore, and his game-winning shot that won a state championship for Sheboygan Lutheran in 2012 is Wisconsin legend. He was homegrown five-star prospect who actually stayed home. He exchanges text messages regularly with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, which to friends and neighbors means he confers with a god.
Dekker’s Badgers will go on to play Duke in the NCAA national championship on Monday.
“I’m sure at some point there will be a sign put up where it will be the city limits of Sheboygan, and it’ll say ‘The Home of Sam Dekker,’” Nick Verhagen, a coach at Dekker’s old high school, told Sports Illustrated. “That’s not there right now. But I have no doubt it will be.”
If Dekker can help deliver the Badgers their second national title ever, and their first since 1941, then that sign may be coming sooner than anyone expected.
