During this weekend's Final Four, Butler will be regarded as the Cinderella team. After all, neither Butler's Horizon League nor its predecessor, the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, had ever produced a Final Four before this weekend.
The "Hoosiers" references will be made an infinite number of times as well, what with Hinkle Fieldhouse being the place that Hickory High won the Indiana state championship and where real-life counterparts Milan High School did the same.
Both of those characterizations should be thrown out the window.
As Butler showed on Thursday and Saturday, it can play with the best in the country. Before the West Regional, we knew Butler was an awfully good team. The Bulldogs were the only team in the nation to have an unblemished conference record, going 18-0 in the Horizon. They had won 22 games in a row (now 24), and last lost three days before Christmas in Birmingham to UAB.
Yet, you wouldn't have been blamed if you doubted Butler's ability to keep up with Syracuse's horses, especially after Wes Johnson's 31 and 14 in the second round against Gonzaga. The first few minutes on Thursday erased that doubt, when the Bulldogs ground Syracuse to a halt in the first eight minutes, and "popped their collars" (we love you, Gus Johnson) to a 13-3 lead and carried the same margin into the locker room.
Late in the second half, though, it looked for all the world like Syracuse had found just enough offense to start pull away, when they had a 54-50 lead with five minutes to go and maintained it until Ronald Nored's adrenaline shot of a three that took two high bounces off the rim before falling. Butler would score nine more unanswered points to put the game away.
Butler was able to go on the game-changing run because they continued to turn the Orange over and lulled them into taking outside shots early in the shot clock.
A similar pattern won the day against Kansas State, albeit with a more sluggish first 20 minutes. In that regional final, however, Butler turned the ball over a whopping 20 times during a 67-possession game. Traditionally, a team like Butler can't beat an ultra-athletic power-conference team like K-State if they turn it over on 30 percent of their possessions. Butler was able to do something they usually can't against the Kansas States of the world and that's outperforming them on the class. The Bulldogs rebounded a higher percentage of their own misses and the Wildcats' misses on Saturday.
There was a similar point in the Kansas State game in which it looked as though Butler might have let the game slip to the Wildcats, until Butler's best player, Gordon Hayward, stepped up with a step back three, a difficult driving layup and an extremely impressive offensive board in the last few minutes.
Butler's defensive gameplan was absolutely immense in the regional final, with Willie Veasley and Nored closely guarding Kansas State's frontcourt mates of Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen. The Bulldogs dared the Wildcats' third option, Curtis Kelly, to beat them with his mid-range game. The three combined for 46 of K-State's 56 points. Clemente and Pullen combined needed 30 shots to get their 32, and made just over a third of those attempts. Kelly was a more efficient 6-for-10, and was available for more opportunities that that.
It's no secret that Butler's calling card is defense and an efficient, slow-to-moderate paced offense. But there's still room for Butler to improve on offense. From the second round on, Butler has failed to hit the one point-per-possession mark, a testament to the great defense they have played the last two weeks. Now, the Bulldogs will face a Michigan State team that has actually been more reliant on offense that defense in the tournament and through the season. This feels like a pretty good matchup for Butler, and if they can do better on offense, a national championship is within reach.
Conventional wisdom says that the loss of Kalin Lucas will eventually catch up to Michigan State, but Korie Lucious has stepped up in his absence, as have players like Darrell Summers and Draymond Green. Conventional wisdom has held little value in this tournament. Also, one cannot say enough about the coaching of Tom Izzo. It's impressive enough that Mike Krzyzewski is in his 11th Final Four, but Izzo being there six times over twelve seasons is absolutely out of this world.
In Hayward's awesome rap song he made with some friends from his hometown of Brownsburg, IN before the tournament started, he says, "Get a few dubs, we'll be in the Final Four, not stoppin' there, that's not in store, push it to the limit, we want more."
Thanks in part to his superb play, Butler now has the chance for the ultimate more: a national championship.
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