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Butler: Story of The Little Engine that Could |
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By Eric Gold - As a child, I remember reading the story of The Little Engine that Could, a tale of optimism and hard work. The story of Butler's trip to the 2010 NCAA Tournament national championship game and falling just short against Duke proves as an inspiration for any team, especially a mid-major, that the phrase "I-think-I-can" could go a long way in determining success or failure.
Brad Stevens, the 33-year-old head coach, guided his team to 25 straight victories going into Monday night's clash with the Blue Devils and the Bulldogs nearly pulled out an historic victory, but fell, 61-59, just a few miles from Butler's campus.
Gordon Hayward's potential go-ahead jumper from the right baseline clanked off the rim in the waning seconds. A buzzer-beating half-court shot almost went in too for Hayward, but the Bulldogs were left with a thought of what could have been, as they nearly beat a team that played in its 10th championship game.
This was the first such appearance for the Bulldogs, but Stevens is hoping not the last.
"They came one shot away from winning a national championship. So, you know, if it furthers the program, it can't further it by much," Stevens said. "I think that one of the things that we're going to try to do is evaluate, continue to evaluate, and recruit to who Butler is and not worry about what everybody else says about it. Try to put teams together that can compete like this one.
"It doesn't mean you're gonna get results like this. You know, we caught lightning in a bottle and ran with it the last 25 games. Almost had an aura of we thought we were going to win every game."
Still, Butler has plenty of reasons to be proud. The Indianapolis school with nearly 4,200 students, saw their basketball team ranked for a good portion of the season and build a winning streak that became a rallying cry. The 25-game run was the longest by a tournament runner-up since Duke in 1999. The Blue Devils brought a 32-game win streak into the national title game but fell to Connecticut in St. Petersburg, Fla. that year.
Butler, which took down No. 1 seed Syracuse in the West regional semifinals, was the smallest school to reach the national title game since in the tournament expanded in 1985.
"I think it's going to help the program greatly. Helps recruits. Lets people know that Butler's not an underdog, that we have a great program, that we can have a chance to be good every year," Butler senior forward Avery Jukes said.
The Bulldogs, playing out of the Horizon League, prided themselves on defense and it's what ultimately helped them knock off schools from the Big East, Big 12 (Kansas State), Big Ten (Michigan State) and nearly the ACC. Butler was the first team in the shot-clock era (1985-86) to advance to the national championship by holding its opponents under 60 points in each of their first five games. The Bulldogs held 12 of their last 14 opponents under 60 points. and nearly did the same Monday night.
"I think the thing that should be known about this game is anything can happen in a basketball game," Stevens said. "You can't hold Duke to a standard of perfection throughout the year. I mean, they're gonna play poorly, under what they usually do sometimes, sometimes they're going to play great, and most of the time they're going to be as good as they are. Same with us."
Eric Gold is College Basketball Analyst
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