Posted on 04/03/2010 9:30:04 PM PDT by tcrlaf
INDIANAPOLIS – So Butler went nearly 11 second-half minutes without a basket and won. The Bulldogs shot 30.4 percent from the field and beat Michigan State 52-50 anyway. They dished just five assists and got outrebounded and the Bulldogs – the Butler Bulldogs! – are going to play for the national title on Monday.
And you want to discount their chances now?
Butler in the finale is improbable. The last school from a smaller conference without a major football program to play for the title was Indiana State in 1979. The Sycamores had Larry Bird though. Butler, on the other hand
Brad Stevens, the 33-year-old coach who never gets rattled, could only shrug.
“I trust my guys,” Stevens said.
This is the most stunning part of the Butler story. Not just how far the Bulldogs have come, but how ugly they’ve looked in getting there. Butler won’t scare Duke, which it will face for the title Monday. Not that it matters. They haven’t scared anyone this entire tournament. At least not until the other team gets on the court and discovers a pack of wild Bulldogs harassing them on every possession.
Five games into this tournament and no opponent has gotten out of the 50s – the Bulldogs allowing a miserly 55.2 points a game in the NCAA tournament. Butler is winning with defense and whatever Jedi mind tricks Stevens employed to get them to buy wholly into the team concept.
“We have guys who’d rather guard the last shot than take it,” he said. “They care about winning. They really do. It’s not about them; it’s about the name on the front of the jersey.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
The real-life “Hoosiers” — hero Bobby Plump and the entire Milan team (minus one, who is no longer living) — will be present at the Butler-Duke game on Monday as guests of the Governor of Indiana.
Yes.....
Thanks! So this has been building for a while.
...and more than likely Nova had already played G-town twice that year.
You are correct, they are talking about a smaller conference in regards to size of the schools.
Just to correct the record, no, Justice Roberts wasn’t “disinvited.” The student body had petitioned to have him speak at the commencement because his niece was graduating. The faculty board nixed the idea. It was, imho, a very wrong-headed application of the school’s no-politics policy for commencement speakers. But at least they’re consistent, with the only politically oriented commencement speakers being the state’s governors (one D and one R), and their speeches were reportedly not political.
Duke, on the other hand, is rabidly left by comparison.
If you’re going to base your fan loyalty on a faculty’s support for or assault on conservatism, then Duke is hardly the better alternative. They’re filthy with leftist professors, terrorist sympathizers, and have a nasty, anti-American bent in their coursework, day in and day out. Their official behavior during the bogus lacrosse case, railroading innocent students for heinous crimes, was outrageous, and alone qualifies the school for disdain, imho.
Yes they were, and they were underseeded in this tournament strictly because of the league they're in. They're no Milan HS.
Me and my family will be rooting for DUKE! Fans to the end!
I forgot to add in my previous post...none of us are DUKE alum.
I didn’t know that about Justice Roberts, but if that’s the case...I hope DUKE beats their pants off and wipes the floor with their shorts!
I spoke too soon without having read the rest of the posts....still, shame on Butler.
Agtee with everything you said....it's a damn shame too. But when it comes to basketball, we choose to separate Coach K and the Team from the rest of the leftist crappos at the university...only with basketball.
"Smaller" as is "minor". The Big East, regardless of its number of members, was a basketball powerhouse in the 80's. In fact, in the 1985 tournament, 3 out of the Final Four teams were from the Big East conference.
The point is that Villanova, despite being a relatively small school, was still a top team from a top conference.
Oh, and one more thing -- there were also (IIRC) a #5 seed and massive underdogs to the #1 Georgetown Hoyas in the final game.
I will be because I actually picked Duke to win it all in my pool. Only two out of thirty in the pool I'm in picked Duke to go all the way. I figured they had a decent shot because they are well coached, mature and peaking at the right time.
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