I had to give this post that title. Because, not only is tonight the night of the NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship, but because every other significant stage of the process is giving an alliterate name: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four (even, this year, First Four).
Today, April 4, 2011, we will see a new champion crowned in the Division 1 college hoops world. Last year's champ, Duke University, was ousted in the Sweet Sixteen by Arizona, and are nowhere to be found. But the program over whom they claimed victory last year, the Butler Bulldogs, are still alive and well. But, before I get into tonight's game, I better recap how the two participants got there.
At approximately 6:08 (ish) Saturday afternoon, the eighth-seeded Butler Bulldogs dirtied their hands in the highest-combined-seeded Final Four matchup ever (their 8th seed and the 11th seed of their opponent, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams). The combined seed, 19, was a doozy. The game was even better.
Both teams had upset Number Ones (Pittsburgh for Butler, Kansas for VCU) on their way to the game, and so we knew not to underestimate them. But it was still pretty awesome. After Butler took an early lead, the Rams started playing the fast-and-furious full-court game that had been the major factor in their 12 points-per-game average margin of victory in the tournament, over such powerhouse teams as Kansas, USC, Purdue, and Georgetown. The Rams led at halftime. But Butler, patient and grinding it out on defense, led by the 6-foot-8 Matt Howard, began to rebound and steal, and tournament star Shelvin Mack began hitting shots from inside and outside the arc, even with a hand in his face. The Bulldogs, who came within a few inches on Gordon Hayward's last-second half-court shot of winning the '10 National Championship against Duke, basically squeezed the life and competitiveness out of the bigger, faster VCU team. They got victimized by Jamie Skeen for a game-high 27 points, but got the Rams as a team into foul trouble and subsequently knocked down nearly all of their own free throws. They ended the Rams' true Cinderella run with a series of wins on the glass and key layups, by a score of 70-62.
At the end of the game, while the players and coaches rejoiced while awash in the cheers of their fans, a sign read "Where's Duke?" Butler becomes the first team to make back-to-back National Championship games since the '06-07 Florida Gators, and the first-ever to not be ranked first or second either time.
Meanwhile, a slightly-less magical, but no less intense, matchup pitted a #3 against a #4 in the late game, with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Huskies and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, respectively. Both teams had shown explosiveness, led by guards Kemba Walker (UCONN) and Brandon Knight (UK). Both were tall, fast, athletic teams with the ability to shoot and rebound well, and they showed it. Well, they showed the rebounding.
Two days later, the glaring thing about that game is still Kansas' horrible shooting, just 33% from the floor. A team accustomed to making three-pointers in bunches blew up and couldn't make a thing from beyond the arc. The Wildcats were all over the offensive glass, rebounding brilliantly, but there were stretches of many minutes where they looked woefully inadequate at even layups. And, of course, Kentucky didn't have Kemba Walker, the likely runner-up (to BYU's top-scorer-in-the-nation Jimmer Fredette) for the Naismith Player of the Year Award. Walker didn't have his best game, scoring just 18 points, but he kept his team in it emotionally with his constant chatter and his exhortations for them to play harder, and he contributed 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and one block to the Huskies' eventual 56-55 win. In a moment of great irony, Brandon Knight, who was 6-for-23 in the game after a sterling tournament-long showing, hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer, cutting the lead to 1, after several minutes' worth of attempted shots by Kentucky (all misses) that could have made that buzzer-beater much more fantastic.
So, what to think? Butler vs. UConn? The first thing my dad said was "It's not unlike Butler/Duke."
And he's right. You've got an athletic squad with a lot of tall men and savvy defense (UConn), plus a superduper athlete right in the middle (Walker) against, well, Butler, a team that can kill you on defense even while being iffy on offense.
My personal take? Butler has been awesome in this tournament, but they'll be hard-pressed to not suffer the agony of two national championship losses in two years. UConn has perhaps three or four guys 6'8 or taller (the height of Matt Howard, Butler's only effective big man and arguably their best player), all of them are athletic, and Walker leads a team that can score efficiently on the fast break. Howard and star defensive guard Ronald Nored of the Bulldogs both got into trouble with four fouls in the semifinal game against VCU; it won't be hard for the Huskies to get Howard especially into trouble, what with their speed and their big bodies.
That said, if Butler can shoot free throws like they have all tournament (Howard, in particular, has been outstanding, going 11-for-12 against the Rams), and if Shelvin Mack continues to rain it in from the three-point line (he made 5-of-6 in the Final Four) anything can happen. Of course, Butler already ousted from the tournament a team that was, like UConn, rather much taller and seemingly more athletic than themselves (Pitt).
It'll be a great game, and, if anything like the two Final Four matchups, edge-of-your-seat, can't-look-away intense.
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