HOUSTON -- There’s a line in the movie Hoosiers when, in the moments before taking the floor to play in the state championship game, the character of Merle Webb tells is Hickory High teammates, “Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here.”
It would be nice to romanticize one of Butler’s players saying that to his teammates before Monday night’s national championship game against Connecticut in Reliant Stadium. Tip-off is slated for 9:23 EST on CBS.
Nice, but not true.
While many in the national media were trying to prompt the Horizon League champions into saying they were playing to win for all the so-called “mid-major” conferences, the Bulldogs put it into another context.
“I don’t know if it’s selfish or not, but we want to win this for ourselves,” said Butler senior Matt Howard. “We don’t look at it at doing it for somebody else. It’s about this team and believing we can accomplish the next task at hand.”
And should they win, of course, all those other things will take care of themselves.
But with the dispatching of that “other” Cinderella, Virginia Commonwealth, in Saturday’s national semifinal, at least Butler can go back to being Butler.
The Bulldogs (28-9) will be underdogs. They’re playing a higher seeded team from a power conference. They will be wearing their black jerseys. Few of the national commentators are picking them -- in fact, the ESPN crew of Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis, Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas was unanimous in choosing UConn to prevail.
In other words, much like the situations the Bulldogs have thrived in as they’ve made back-to-back advances to the championship game and compiled a 10-1 record in tournament play the last two years.
On paper, UConn is not the monster team like the one- and two-seeds (Syracuse, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Florida) Butler has beaten the last two years. But Butler will play the Huskies on the court, not on paper. And on the court, UConn (31-9) is riding a 10-game tournament winning streak that started with the Big East tournament and was capped by a semifinal victory over Kentucky.
The Huskies -- vying for their third national championship under coach Jim Calhoun -- are led by the electrifying junior guard Kemba Walker, a first-team all-American who would have been national player of the year in any year that didn’t include BYU’s Jimmer Fredette.
Walker is averaging 23.7 points a game, 25 in the tournament.
“I think he’s a guy that makes a lot of plays,” said Butler coach Brad Stevens. “He’s a guy that puts you in a lot of unique positions.
“We have played teams that have singular stars, but this isn’t a team that has just a singular star. This is a team that has a lot of good players and possibly a couple of pros around a for-sure pro.”
No, Butler won’t pass the eye test when they line up for the opening tip. The Bulldogs rarely do. But they still find a way, usually starting on the defensive end.
That’s led the Bulldogs 14 straight wins and this improbable journey to the championship game.
“If we play as well as we can play, we’ll have a shot,” Stevens said. “I know this: if we prepare well and give effort, then I’ll be okay with that.”
ODDS and ENDS -- Butler and UConn have never met … Butler is 1-1 against the Big East this season, losing its season-opener at Louisville then beating Pitt in the tournament … Howard will close out his career at Butler’s all-time leader in tournament games played (15), career games played (141) and games started (133) … Shelvin Mack now has scored 219 points in 12 NCAA games and is averaging 21.5 in this tournament … Butler’s 28 wins are the fourth most in school history … UConn’s Walker and Mack were teammates on last summer’s USA Basketball Select Team … Butler and UConn were both in Washington, D.C., for the second and third rounds and stayed in the same hotel.
Tags: Butler - Men's Basketball · Horizon League - Men's Basketball
