Can Butler Do It? Bulldogs Hope To Make History At NCAA Men’s Final Four

TSJ welcomes back The College Basketball Junkie – David Sole – for his coverage of the NCAA Men’s Final Four, taking place in Indianapolis this weekend.

This year’s NCAA Tournament has been anything but the expected. 65 teams are finally down to four and there have been many surprises along the way. Most people’s brackets were blown up long ago (I know mine was!) when Kansas went down to upstart Northern Iowa in Round 2, Syracuse lost to Butler in the Sweet 16 and Kentucky was ousted by West Virginia in the Elite 8. What we are left with is one of the most interesting Final Fours in history, featuring Michigan State, Duke, West Virginia and Butler, with the Bulldogs clearly the story of the tournament so far. After making the Sweet 16 in 2003 and 2007 – but never advancing to the Elite 8 – this young, upstart team from Indy could be cutting down the nets Monday night just a mere 5 miles away from their home campus.

Butler's Hayward May Be The Best College Player You've Never Heard Of

Entering this year’s tourney as a 5-seed in the West Region, these under-(Bull)dogs are being compared to the Hickory High team from the classic Gene Hackman movie ‘Hoosiers’, based on the 1954 Milan High School champions from the State of Indiana. Ironic that the tiny school of Butler (4,500 student body) plays their home games in Hinkle Fieldhouse, where the majority of the basketball scenes in Hoosiers were shot. Nobody expected the Horizon League Champions to end up playing in their home city of Indianapolis this weekend, but thanks to their 33-year old coach Brad Stevens and his two star sophomores – Gordon Hayward from Brownsburg, Indiana and Shelvin Mack from Lexington, Kentucky – this team has proved its worthiness in their solid wins so far over UTEP, Murray State, Syracuse and Kansas State.

Butler Looks To Mack For Leadership and Scoring

Hayward and Mack may not be household names to most basketball fans but they were both chosen to play on last year’s USA’s 19-and-under team and also participated last summer’ in the FIBA World Championships in New Zealand against tough international competition. It was actually Syracuse head coach and USA Basketball Committee Chair Jim Boeheim that made sure that Hayward and Mack made the USA team last summer, recognizing something special in these two young Bulldogs. He even went as far as saying that Hayward was the most impressive college player he has worked with on Team USA in his eight years there. As karma would have it, Hayward and Mack came back to haunt Boeheim in this year’s Sweet Sixteen, combining for 31 of Butler’s 63 points in their win over Syracuse in Salt Lake City.

While the Bulldogs are considered a mid-major, they are definitely not a Cinderella like the 11-seeded George Mason who stunned North Carolina and Connecticut to make it to the Final Four back in 2006. This Butler team has not lost a game since December 22nd. They have lost only four games all season – to Minnesota, Clemson, Georgetown and Alabama-Birmingham – with three of those four losses coming to 2010 Tournament teams. Most people don’t even realize that Butler was ranked as high as tenth in the nation at the start of this season.

Butler personifies the adage 'Survive & Advance'

This Butler team has shown a lot of poise throughout the tournament. Against Murray State, Syracuse and Kansas State, they surrendered the lead late in the 2nd half, but all three times were able to compose themselves and go on big runs to end the game. After Kansas State guard Denis Clemente hit a 3-pointer with 4:51 left in the game to put the Wildcats up 52-51, the Bulldogs overcame their 20 turnovers and ended the game on a 12-4 run. In the Sweet 16 against the Orange, the Bulldogs were trailing 54-50 with less than 3:30 to play amidst a woeful 6-24 shooting performance from 3-point range, but still managed to go on a 13-5 run to close out the ‘Cuse. Murray State was up 50-47 with 2:47 remaining, when Butler scored 7 or the final 9 points to win by 2, despite scoring just 22 first half points and being outrebounded by 18 by the Racers. The Bulldogs’ success is intrinsically tied to the Tournament’s well-known mantra – ’survive and advance’.

The biggest reason Butler finds themselves in the Final Four is their defensive play. They have not allowed a team to score 60 points on them in the past six games. Boeheim offered heavy praise for Butler’s D following their loss last weekend, claiming that Mack and Butler guard Ronal Nored played the best team defense of any backcourt tandem he has coached against in the past ten years.
High praise indeed.

Butler's Poor Foul-Shooting Has Kept Coach Stevens On His Toes

But if Butler has plans on winning it all, it will have to to correct their one glaring weakness so far in the Tournament – making free throws. They’ve made just 58 of 88 (66%) from the foul line in their four wins. As Memphis proved two years ago in their heartbreaking title game loss to Kansas, the inability to sink key foul shots late in the game can come back to haunt you big time in a close contest.

Next up for Butler Saturday night is Tom Izzo and his overachieving 5-seed Michigan State Spartans. Last year it was Izzo’s team who played close to home at Ford Field in Detroit. This year, the Butler Bulldogs are the home team – a team with two future NBA players, a talented young coach, a 24-game winning streak, who’s playing just down the road from their own gym.

Twenty-three years after the release of the movie Hoosiers, a sequel may just be in the works this weekend – when a tiny school from Indiana named Butler looks to re-write college basketball history and win their first-ever National Title.

STEVENS’ FUTURE AT BUTLER IN DOUBT?

Don’t expect baby-faced head coach Brad Stevens to be in Indianapolis for much longer. The 33-year old, who grew up in tiny Zionsville, Indiana, has already been pursued by DePaul and should expect to receive interest from other power conference schools looking for a new bench boss after his successful run in this years’ tournament. Stevens is in just his third year as a head coach but he started his career as an assistant on the Butler bench some ten years ago.