On one side of the bracket sits a pair of five-seeds, thought to have been unlikely participants in the final days of March Madness, but which have certainly proven to be no fluke. On the other side, a pair of
On one side of the bracket sits a pair of five-seeds, thought to have been unlikely participants in the final days of March Madness, but which have certainly proven to be no fluke.
On the other side, a pair of highly-ranked programs with highly-recognizable coaches, both of whom are taking aim at the tournament success that has eluded them in recent years.
It is the final weekend of men’s college basketball action, the Final Four, a stage that will likely be the grandest for most of these players’ basketball lives.
Butler, Michigan State, Duke and West Virginia have survived four rounds of competition to now play for the ultimate prize, one that can define a career.
A national championship.
While Duke and West Virginia should be no surprise to still be standing, having each won its conference tournament and receiving a No. 1 and No. 2 seed, respectively, the same can not be said for the No. 5 Bulldogs and No. 5 Spartans.
Without even looking at the players, just their placement in the bracket made them mathematical longshots.
Only five No. 5 seeds have made it to the Final Four since seedings began in 1979.
Two of those five made it to the championship game and neither (Florida, 2000; Indiana, 2002) won the title.
We’re guaranteed to add one team to that last stat and could see the first No. 5 seed cut down the nets, with the way these two clubs have played the past two weeks.
Butler is playing at as high a level as any team in the country has all season. It currently holds a 24-game winning streak, not having lost since a 67-57 defeat at UAB on Dec. 22.
It has put together the most impressive streak of tournament victories of any remaining club, first dismantling UTEP in the first round, then holding on for a two-point win over Murray State, before taking out No. 1 Syracuse and No. 2 Kansas State within a three-day span.
Those last two wins showed what this team is made of, as it built up solid leads in each, only to see its opponent make the inevitable second-half run and re-capture the edge. Yet its resolve and poise were evident, both times coming back to win going away.
Gordon Hayward, the team’s 6’8” swing man who has an NBA future, along with guard Shelvin Mack, who never backs from the spotlight, give Butler a twosome to compete with any team it sees.
It also might have at least as good of, if not a better coach than anyone it plays. That may seem like blasphemy when Tom Izzo, Bob Huggins and Mike Krzyzewski are the other three holding clipboards, but Brad Stevens has proven himself to be in that mix this tournament. His players never seem rattled, he knows when to stop the action and his team is usually effective coming out of timeouts.
Izzo’s Spartans will be looking to make it back-to-back appearances in Monday’s championship game, having lost last year to top-ranked North Carolina.
This year’s run is just as impressive, if not more so, given the way the team finished the season and the current shorthanded rotation.
Junior guard Kalin Lucas, who averages 15 points and four assists a game for MSU, got hurt in the team’s second-round win over Maryland. He will miss the remainder of the tournament, though the Spartans have carried on without his services.
Korie Lucious has upped his minutes and production since the injury, becoming a driving force for the offense.
The Spartans’ run to this point has truly embodied the word “survival.” They had to survive a second-half scare from No. 12 New Mexico State in their opening-round 70-67 win, then got a game-winning 3-pointer from Lucious to knock off No. 4 Maryland at the buzzer, battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit to move past No. 9 Northern Iowa, then beat No. 6 Tennessee by a single point in the regional final.
Whew.
Just reading their run is tiring. Continuing to survive and advance without Lucas, their best player all season, seems like a tall order.
One stat working against Michigan State is the fact that no team has ever won the national championship after losing in the first round of its conference tournament. MSU was bounced in the first round, a 72-67 overtime loss to Minnesota. Butler, Duke and West Virginia all won their respective conference tournament titles.
By the way, the Final Four is being played in Indianapolis, just six miles away from the Butler University campus. It should amount to a virtual home game for the Bulldogs, something that must be taken into consideration.
At the level Butler is playing, it will force Michigan State to finally blink first, coming away with a 60-57 victory and setting the stage for another real-life Hoosiers storyline on Monday.
West Virginia and Duke tangle in the nightcap, creating the somewhat predictable matchup of the two Saturday games, though each had major obstacles in its road to the Final Four.
The Mountaineers managed to take out the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats, who boasted four likely lottery picks in their starting lineup. Coach Huggins has gotten this team to where he and fans expected it to be, while removing much of his stigma as a poor tournament coach.
West Virginia is certainly battle tested, having come out of the Big East, which was widely considered the best conference in the country — at least prior to the NCAA tournament.
It played in and won many close games this season, embodying that persona down the stretch. The team’s final four games were a two-point OT win over Villanova, a three-point win over Cincinnati, a two-point win over Notre Dame and a two-point win over Georgetown.
Those wins can now be criticized, due to poor tournament performances by the losers, but the Mountaineers had three relatively easy wins to start the tournament before knocking off Kentucky, a game they led by double-digits in the second half. So they have been able to put teams away this month, a commendable attribute.
A chink in the West Virginia armor is the lack of point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant, who broke his foot in practice, March 23. According to the WVU coaching staff, it is “highly unlikely” he will play.
The Mountaineers are athletic, play great defense and rebound better than almost anyone — a trait that will be necessary to spoil Duke’s fun.
The Blue Devils used their determination on the offensive glass as the deciding factor in a 78-71 win over No. 3 Baylor in the regional final. Duke pulled down 22 offensive boards in the game, eight coming from forward Lance Thomas.
As senior forward Kyle Singler struggled from the field (0 for 10), the backcourt of Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith stepped up in a big way, combining for 49 points.
The emergence of center Ben Zoubek has been critical, and he must continue to be the battling big man he has become to stay with the long arms of the Mountaineers.
Duke had plenty of doubters all season, with a team short on superstars and a weaker than usual ACC. But the Blue Devils are currently responding to critics the same way they usually do: they’re playing really good basketball.
The team that everyone loves to hate, the Goliath to Butler’s David, will do just enough to continue Coach K’s run at another title, escaping today with a 68-66 win over West Virginia, setting up a sports writer’s dream Monday matchup: Duke vs. Butler.
Usually re-enactments are fictional accounts of a real event, but this championship game will be the reverse, depicting the Hoosiers tale in real life on the hardwood and making this already memorable tournament immortal.
