Two Teams Remaining…One Shining Moment

Tonight, April 4, 2011, there will be a new champion crowned in NCAA Men’s college basketball. Many sports talk hosts have expressed the opinion that the NCAA Tournament is the overall event in sports. The NFL Playoffs aside, I share that opinion.

It is the only event which, over the years, I observe casual fans, many of whom watched absolutely no college basketball during the regular season, take an interest in a sporting event. To me, it feels like nearly every man (and many women) in every office everywhere in America fills out a bracket and takes an interest in five young men, on the court, which they had never heard of prior to March, sometimes for schools that the office place bracketologist could not locate on a U.S. map.

One team is a traditional Goliath, the Connecticut Huskies. The other is a traditional David, the Butler Bulldogs. Both teams have both underdog and favorite-like characteristics.


Butler University – Arriving in a Bus Like Everyone Else, not a Pumpkin Carriage

The Bulldogs were last year’s national runner up, losing to Duke after Butler’s Gordon Heyward’s potential game winning three point shot at the buzzer bounced off of the back of the rim. It is easy to cast Butler into the “Cinderella” or “underdog” role by focusing on the name on the front of the jersey and the number next to that name in the bracket seeding. When looking at the actual accomplishments on paper, however, I do not think Butler, on the court, looks like the “little guy”.

Look at every instance, in the past, in which a team reached the Final Four in consecutive years, let alone the championship game, prior to 2011. Would you describe ANY of those teams as “Cinderellas” or “little guys”? Michigan Sate in 2010? North Carolina (the champion) in 2009? UCLA and Florida (a repeat champion) in 2008? Kansas in 2003? Maryland (the champion) in 2002? Defending champion Michigan State in 2001? Tournament champion Michigan State in 2000? Wow! Butler sure is joining a bunch of “Little Engines That Could” in this century!

Here are a couple of other "little guys",  just like Butler. 2

The notion that any of the aforementioned repeat Final Four participants were longshot underdogs is absurd. Yet, if you go to Google.com, and type in “Butler University ci,” the words “Cinderella” and “Cinderella story” populate in the auto-complete field. In 2011, that does not add up. Butler is back to take what they think is theirs: a championship that narrowly escaped their grasp last season.


University of Connecticut – An Underdog with a Cape

UConn: The "Underdog" 3

The University of Connecticut is in its fourth Final Four and its third title game, playing for a chance at its third National Championship. Its Head Coach, Jim Calhoun, is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. The UConn basketball programs, both men’s and women’s, have been among the elite college hoops programs over the last 20 years. WHY oh WHY should the Huskies have to soil their hands with such lowly creatures as the Butler Bulldogs???

Connecticut finished in 9th place in the highly competitive Big East conference during the regular season. They won five consecutive games in five days in the Big East Tournament to win the conference tournament and catapult up to a #3 seed in the West Region of the NCAA tournament. Connecticut’s run earned the Huskies a higher seed than Georgetown, West Virginia, St. John’s, Cincinnati, and Louisville, all of whom had superior Big East records in the regular season.

The Huskies play solid team defense and crash the boards aggressively when they need to. However, the foundation of their offense comes from one man: guard Kemba Walker, a National Player of the Year candidate and a certain Most Outstanding Player of this year’s tournament should the Huskies win tonight.

One man offenses seldom win championships, yet Connecticut ran roughshod through its first three tournament games and had more gas in its tank than Elite Eight opponent Arizona and National Semifinal opponent Kentucky. This is in contrast to a regular season in which it lost against then-underdogs West Virginia, Marquette, St. John’s, and Louisville when wins could have significantly advanced their standing in the Big East.


Who is the REAL Underdog?

The odds on tonight’s game have Connecticut as three point favorites.* That is a single basket. This is virtually a push. In addition, betting odds are simply reactions to how people are betting on games. I think the average, garden variety seasoned gambler, who does not actually watch the games, may be deferring to Connecticut because they are a more traditional power and because they have been on fire.

However, Butler has simply outplayed every opponent during this tournament, especially with their frustrating, physical defense. Connecticut is not that big, compared to Butler. They appear to have no daunting advantage in length to overcome the size and physicality of Butler. If Kemba Walker can be bottled up, the Huskies will be in a lot of trouble. That remains to be a BIG “if” and nobody has succeeded in that task thus far. Still, UConn has yet to face dual (offensive, defensive) threats like Butler’s Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack on both sides of the court. I think that Butler has too much for Connecticut to handle if there are no major Butler injuries and Matt Howard is not in foul trouble.

Advantage: Butler

Please...PLEASE let them bring the Luther Vandross Version of "One Shining Moment" back this year!

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*Source: sbnation.com
1) The Final Four logo is a trademark of the NCAA and its licensed affiliates.
2) Image from graneyandthepig.wordpress.com
3) Image from tylerquillin.wordpress.com