go bulldogs go

Just wanted to get on the record that I am rooting for Butler tonight to blow UConn out of the proverbial building. It's not that I hate UConn, although I do think their head coach is one of, if not the, sleaziest of the sleazy head coaches in D1 basketball, and the sport will be better when he's sent to the retirement home. Or at least less corrupt.

No, I want Butler to win, because I want the little guy to break through. Truth be told, part of me wishes Gordon Hayward's shot had gone in last year, instead of clanking off the rim. I rooted for Duke last year because ... well, I had them in my pool winning it all (enabling me to finish 2nd), I love Jon Scheyer, and I was watching it with the ex-roommate, who's so in love with anything Dook that he even named his friggin dog Duke.

But what if Hayward's shot had gone in? Would that have been the most epic moment in D1 hoops history? (Probably). And if it had gone in, we'd be talking about this Butler team as one of the all-time great teams in the modern era of the NCAA.

If I did the research right, I only counted four teams that have played for the championship for two straight years since the tournament expanded to 64 in 1985:

* 1991-1992 Duke: won both championship games, against (dammit!) Kansas, and then Michigan.
* 1992-1993 Michigan: lost both championship games, against Duke and UNC.
* 1994-1995 Arkansas: won in 1994 against Duke, lost in 1995 against UCLA.
* 2006-2007 Florida: won both championship games, against UCLA and Ohio State.

Only one team has played in three straight championship games:

1996-1997-1998 Kentucky: beat (dammit!) Syracuse, lost to Arizona in overtime, and beat Utah.

What all of those five schools have in common, is (a) being Duke or Kentucky, two of the premiere six programs in college hoops (along with KU, Indiana, UCLA, and UNC), or (b) having a transcendent, game-altering recruiting class -- the Fab Five of Michigan, the 40 Minutes of Hell Razorbacks, and Florida's dominant class of the mid 2000s.

The only other school to join them? Butler. And I think that's awesome.

As as Pat Forde pointed out earlier today, the "Hoosiers" team that was turned into the epic underdog of all time? Lost the title game the year before the team the film featured won it all. You gotta love it.

Go Butler Go!