Tonight's national championship pits the two "bests" against each other. On one side, Duke, the best team. On the other, Butler, the media-approved best story. Butler can become the first non-major conference program to take the title since Tark the Shark lead UNLV to the 1990 crown. Ironically, UNLV beat a lesser known Coach K and surprise Duke team that year. 20 years later, and 10 final 4's and 3 national title's later for Duke, things have come full circle.
Duke
It's been a while since Duke has had a legit claim to being the premier team in college ball, but this Duke team is nothing like the teams post 2005. This team can bang. Duke took it to WVA for 40 minutes behind; the versatility of Singler, basketball IQ of Scheyer, pure ability of Nolan Smith, and flat out hustle of Thomas, Zoubek, and the Plumlees. Duke will break you down outside, and then wear you down inside. While they still lack a true interior scorer, Duke has proven that with defense and outstanding offensive rebounding they can beat you, even on nights where one of the big 3 isn't on. Duke is peaking, 13-1 since the addition of Zoubek into the starting lineup, and as they are also void of a lottery pick on the roster I'd say this is one of K's finer coaching jobs.
Duke is the better team but they'll have to match the intensity of Butler early to prevent Conseco Field House from imploding. Duke doesn't get the neutral fans, and with Butler's campus a knock down 6 iron from downtown Indy...well...Duke is playing a road game for its shot at the National Title. In order to win, 2 of their big 3 must produce and Zoubek, Thomas, Et al. must stay out of foul trouble early. The longer this game stays a game, the better chance Butler has of winning.
Butler
David, Cinderella, Rocky, Rudy, Hoosiers, underdog, mid-major, Charlie Conway, whatever. Everyone needs to reLAX.
Butler is no Cinderella. The Bulldogs were perfect in conference play and won 25 in a row heading into the tournament. After now having sent Syracuse, Kansas State, and Michigan State on spring break, it's just stupid to call them anything other than damn good. Where Butler lacks being able to win multiple types of games, i.e. adapting to a different style of play, they excel at forcing you to play theirs. Butler has yet to give up 60 or more points in the tournament and advanced to the title game on a night where they shot 15 of 49 from the floor.
In order to win, the duo of Howard and Hayward must produce to their averages. Howard suffered a minor concussion when his eyes unfortunately met those of Lupe Izzo's, but I think he'll be good to go come tonight. Shelvin Mack is also a big key to the game and it will be interesting to see if he is responsible for keeping Nolan Smith out of the lane. Butler needs to force Duke into the half court and play a low scoring game similar to their last few. Obviously Butler will need to shoot it better than in their Final 4 performance, but realistically it will be more about keeping the Devils from owning the glass and hoping that Duke has a subpar night from long range.
Championship Rant
Butler is more than happy to play the underdog role, and entitled to it, but it is clear that Coach K is using the OMG everybody hates us mentality, as clear by the recent ESPN article by Eammon Brennan. While the Duke hate is by and large absurd, K claiming, "We're never going to lose because we have too many people patting us on the back," is equally absurd. Duke might not be a darling of the masses, but they could play Middle Tennessee State's women's team and ESPN would televise it. Dick Vitale literally gets off when he hears the word "Cameron" and Jay Bilas is one of the main talking heads in all of college basketball. Duke isn't hurting for attention, and as anyone who followed Lane Kiffin at Tennessee can now tell you, all press is good press. I'm not saying I don't see where he is coming from, yea OK people hate Duke that's understood, but you still have it prettttttty, pretttttttty, prettty good.
What's Gonna Happen
(not legally binding)
In a case such as this I always defer to the more compelling storyline. Butler being small blah blah let's get to the juice.
Is Butler Coach Brad Stevens the love child of Pee-wee Herman and Matthew Broderick?
Was Coach K created in the image of the Duke Blue Devil?
I can't blame Stevens for being a love child product; if you were Broderick and woke up next to Sarah Jessica Parker everyday you would elope with Herman too. In the case of coach compelling-ness where the outcome is too close to call I generally revert back to which team is actually better. In that case I'll go with Duke behind the Chi-pure stroke of Jon Scheyer. Chi Erry Day.
Duke 71 - Butler 62
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