“We just came up a bounce short.” – Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens
It was a heartbreaking ending to an otherwise incredible season for the underdog Butler Bulldogs. Their 61-59 loss to the Duke Blue Devils Monday night ended their dreams of a 26th straight victory and a title win in their hometown of Indianapolis. But it was oh so close.
Stevens Proved He Belonged With The Big Boys
Butler showed us all that they belonged on the same stage with the big boys of College Basketball. Monday night’s game was an epic battle of wits between the old dog – Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski – and the young up and comer – Butler’s Stevens. The contest was the closest margin of victory in a National Championship game since Rumeal Robinson’s free throws helped Michigan edge Seton Hall 80-79 back in 1989, yet it shouldn’t be remembered as one of the best championship games of all time, which many experts have dubbed it. While proving to be an entertaining, defensive battle, offensively it was sloppy and sometimes hard to watch.
Duke and Butler combined to score just four field goals in the final 9-and-a-half minutes in the game. During that span, Duke committed 6 turnovers and missed 5 shots, while Butler missed 9 shots. All in all, the two squads combined for 7 turnovers and 4-of-14 shooting to end the game. How anyone could call this one of the greatest championship games ever played I’m not sure. There may have been great drama but the final ten minutes were flat out ugly.
Coach K Almost Cost Himself The Chance To Cut Down The Nets For A 4th Time
Despite hanging on to win his fourth National Championship, Coach K almost cost his team the game in the dying seconds. His decision to tell C Brian Zoubek to purposely miss the 2nd of his 2 free throws with 3.6 seconds left and Duke up by 2 – was a bad one and almost proved to be a colossal mistake. No one was more relieved than Krzyzewski to see Gordon Hayward’s desperation heave at the buzzer clank off the rim – if it somehow dropped, his decision to intentionally miss that 2nd foul shot would be looked back upon as one of the biggest coaching mistakes in basketball – if not sports – history. Coach K later admitted he took the huge gamble because he didn’t want to go to overtime, feeling that Butler would have won in the extra session. I guess in Krzyzweski’s case, you gotta be good to be lucky and lucky to be good.
Duke Proved To Have Just Enough To Hold Off Butler
Duke’s star Junior Forward Kyle Singler led all scorers with 19 points in the game, but it was his defense on Hayward that likely won the game for the Dukies. Hayward made just 2-of-11 field goal attempts (0-3 from behind the arc) in his worst shooting game of the season. Overall, I was disappointed in the play of Hayward. He looked lost on the offensive end, playing passively, often content to just stand around on the perimeter during his team’s possessions. While Singler was working hard running the baseline and using his opponents screens to curl and get open for jumpers, Hayward just seemed content to stand around and watch.
Butler’s stingy defense also kept them in the game, with their tight perimeter defense holding Duke sharpshooters Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith to just 10-of-27 from the floor and a mere 2-of-10 from 3-point range. In the end, Butler missed out on a glorious opportunity to make NCAA history. They flubbed easy open baskets inside in the first half, including a couple of gimmies by Matt Howard and Ronald Nored. Shockingly, the Bulldogs’ starters shot only 14-of-50 from the field, including 3-of-14 from downtown. Let’s face it – 28 percent shooting isn’t going to win you a National Title.
Amazingly enough, 30 percent would have.
You could argue great defense that last 10 minutes but I’m in the offence is exciting camp so I am always disappointed unless scoring is happening.