(Picture from http://www.daylife.com/)
I want to issue an apology to the members of the Butler Basketball team, the university, and most importantly my cousin Dani. At the start of this tournament I picked UTEP to beat Butler in the first round in an article that was more wrong than President Obama's bracket.
I wasn't high on Butler just because I didn't know how they would handle true competition outside of the Horizon League. I've liked the school, liked their style of play, and even tried trading Todd Lickliter, Iowa's entire roster, one hundred dollars, and 200 Hawks Nest T-shirts to Butler just for Brad Stevens. But for some reason that first round, I feel in love with a trendy pick instead of looking at the bigger picture.
Then last weekend something happened. Before someone could even mutter the name Blue, I realized I had made a mistake of astronomical proportions; I should have never bet against them.
That's right, the Butler Bulldogs, the team I predicted to be ousted in the first round of the tourney ended up being my favorite "MAD" team to watch.
It all started with Brad Stevens, who I have even developed a bit of a man crush on (as I'm sure most ladies and gentlemen in Indiana have). I hate using this word, but he is really amazing. The things he's done with this team as an inexperienced 33 year old is not only note worthy, it should be a damn Disney movie.
He took over for "The Todd" Lickliter, and if you have read this site or our sister site at all in the past four months, you know how we feel about that schmuck.
And if Stevens' boyish good looks and dentist approved smile weren't enough to convince you to join the Butler "Dawg Wagon" for at least for one day, just sit down and watch Matt Howard, Gordon Hayward, Willie Veasley and Shelvin Mack for five minutes and I guarantee you will fall in love with them (that is if Howard doesn't pick up three quick fouls).
Forget Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, forget Ollie and his state championship clinching "granny style" free throw, forget Hickory High, and forget Jimmy Chitwood, because Butler is making the fine folks of Indiana forget the Hoosier name and instead they are making them bark like a dog.
In this real life movie, the feel good coach that nobody in the National Media believed in will be played by the 33 year old Brad Stevens. Gordon Hayward will be playing the savvy sophomore who is the true definition of a Hoosier. And Matt Howard's "eyebrow" mustache will provide plenty of comedy in this nail biting drama.
At the end of this movie, you will remember when Butler, who was portrayed as David for weeks, takes on Duke the natural Goliath. You will remember when the Cinderella Butler Bulldogs showed up to the Ball. And you will remember when they tear down the house.
This Butler team goes after loose balls. They hold their own on the glass. They are incredibly physical. They make plays. They play stifling defense. They have fun and they are fun to watch.
The underdog, is now a Bulldog folks and in the words of Dickie-V, "This Butler team is SUPER, SPECTACULAR, SENSATIONAL!"
Here's to hoping both Mack and Howard are ready to go by Monday.
3 comments:
There is no way to deny that Butler is better than I thought but I still don't think Butler is the at lest the second best team in the nation. The only game I'm really impressed with was their dominating win over syracuse. They had UTEP and Murray St. in the first two rounds, the good win over Cuse. They beat a Kansas St. team that never impressed me this year and then in the final four they beat a Michigan St. team that was lucky to be there in the first place and the Spartans were without their best player and it showed that they needed him. They only had four loses this year which is impressive but their loses were to Minnesota, Clemson, and UAB. Not terribe teams but not great teams either. I think this team was a combination of being hot and having an easy route to the title. I just don't see Butler from the Horizon League being the second best team in the nation. They did win the games that they had to and I'll give them that.
After watching the championship game I can say that Butler really impressed me and I thought the last second shot was going in. Maybe I was wrong and Butler really did belong there.
Or maybe neither of those teams are the top two in the nation, but the best teams had bad games at bad times. You can't take away from these two teams, but you will never convince me that if they played against Kentucky or Kansas when they are playing well that they would stand a chance. Especially Butler, who wins with their style. That will only get you so far. It worked against Duke, who actualyl plays a similar style, but against teams with far superior talent, it would have caught up to them. Fortunately for them and for the viewers of the tourney, they didn't have to face those far superior athletic teams while they were at full strength (see the injury to Onuaku for Syracuse and the 2OT game 36 hours earlier for K-State).
Post a Comment