Butler Could Win It All
by: John Hobart ‘10
The Final Four is set, and it is not what anyone imagined. One side of the bracket has (5) Michigan State going up against (5) Butler and the other side has (1) Duke taking on (2) West Virginia.
I have Butler beating Michigan State for this reason: it is essentially a home game. Butler, a school with an enrollment of about 4,000 is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Oh, by the way, the Final Four is in Indianapolis. The team went undefeated at home this season and will have a huge fan base at the Final Four.
So the question is… How did Butler get to where they are? Well, it all starts with the coach. At only 33 years of age Head Coach Brad Stevens is 88-14 as the coach of the Bulldogs, who compete in the Horizon League. He played collegiately at Depauw University before becoming an assistant at Butler in 2001. Coach Stevens’ roster is made up mostly of Indiana natives who will be pumped to play in front of their friends and families for a potential National Championship.
Indiana University has always dominated the scene when it comes to college hoops. However, the program has run into difficulties lately which opened the door for Butler and Coach Stevens to recruit top in-state talent. Sophomore Gordon Hayward of Brownsburg, IN has led the way for the Bulldogs, leading the team in both points and rebounds.
Saturday night will not be an easy win by any means for the Bulldogs as they take on Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans. Izzo is considered to be one of the top coaches in the nation and he will certainly have his team ready. However, Butler is hot, having knocked off Syracuse and Kansas State in its previous two games and Michigan State lost their best player, Kalin Lucas, after he tore his Achilles in the second round of the tournament.
If the Bulldogs are able to defeat the Spartans in the semis, they will face an even tougher opponent and coach after Duke beats West Virginia. Mike Krzyzewski has his team playing at a very high level and they will be tough to beat. But I believe the 63 year old Coach K is about to give way to the next big thing among coaches in College Basketball. Butler will ride the home crowd to a victory, becoming one of the most unexpected NCAA champions of all time.
On another note, Butler is going to have a very hard time keeping Major Conferences from trying to lure Stevens away. Let’s look down the road seven years. Coach K is 70 and Stevens is 40, coming into his prime. While Duke could very easily go in house for a replacement when the legend retires, don’t be surprised if Butler’s Brad Stevens takes over for Coach K at Duke. You heard it here first.
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