The
Duke Blue Devils are national champions.
Again.
Surviving everything that Butler could muster in
front of a hometown crowd in one of the closest, most exhilarating
national championship games in history, Duke hung on for a 61-59 victory
that gives
coach Mike
Krzyzewski his fourth national title.
It's the first for Duke since 2001.
The Blue Devils could have made the final seconds a
little less agonizing, but
Kyle
Singler missed a jumper with 38 seconds remaining and the ball
eventually bounced off the foot of
Brian Zoubek and out of bounds.
The Bulldogs couldn't inbound the ball with 13.6
seconds remaining and had to call a timeout, then got the ball to Gordon
Hayward on their second try. He drove to his right and took a fall-away
jumper along the baseline over the 7-foot-1 Zoubek that hit the back of
the iron and bounced out.
Zoubek pulled down the rebound and was fouled with
3.6 seconds remaining, and he hit the first foul shot and before missing
the second on purpose. Hayward then pulled down the rebound and managed
to get to midcourt before unloading a shot that bounced off the
backboard, hit the front of the rim, then caromed to the floor.
The dream for the upstarts is over, while another
banner is headed for the rafters at
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
___
Butler will have the last shot with 13.6 seconds
remaining, trailing Duke 60-59.
Brian Zoubek got away with throwing Butler forward
Matt Howard to the floor when the Blue Devils had the ball, but in
another instance of karma, the ball ended up bouncing off the Duke
center's foot and out of bounds.
Butler worked for an open shot but the ball
eventually was tipped out of bounds by a Duke player, and coach
Brad Stevens called a
timeout to set up the final shot.
___
Matt Howard is making his mark!
The big guy for Butler who was questionable to play
after sustaining a mild concussion against Michigan State has scored
back-to-back baskets inside to get the gritty Bulldogs within 60-59 with
under a minute to go in Indianapolis.
Shelvin Mack missed an open 3-pointer that would have
tied it, but found Howard wide open underneath moments later for the
easy bucket, and Duke called a timeout.
___
Butler hasn't hit a field goal in roughly six
minutes, getting all six of its points since the 9:30 mark on free
throws by Matt Howard and Gordon Hayward.
Kyle Singler's jumper moments ago was only the second basket for Duke
since the 10:24 mark of the second half. It gave the
Blue Devils a 58-55 lead,
though, and Nolan Smith will be heading to the line for a pair of free
throws with just over 3 minutes left in the national championship game.
The close game would seem to favor Butler, which is 10-1 this season in
games decided by five points or fewer. That includes a 52-50 win over
Michigan State, a 63-59 win over Syracuse and a 54-52 win over Murray
State in the
NCAA
tournament.
___
Boos rained down in Lucas Oil Stadium after Gordon Hayward took the ball
on a fastbreak and was hacked across the arms by
Lance Thomas, who
appeared to be going for the ball.
The referees checked the video to see whether it was a flagrant foul,
but they ended up deciding that Hayward would simply shoot two free
throws.
It was the fourth foul on Thomas, though, and
Brian Zoubek also has four for Duke.
Hayward made both free throws — he's 8 for 8 for the game — and the
gritty Bulldogs were within 56-55 with about 5 minutes to go.
___
Jon Scheyer is
making up for an off night from beyond the arc by doing the little
things — scrapping for loose balls, tracking down rebounds, dishing out
assists (he has five of them) and scoring three points the old-fashioned
way.
Scheyer just hit a short, fall-away
bank shot moments ago and hit the free
throw when play resumed to push Duke ahead 54-49 with 7:58 remaining.
Duke's "Big Three" of Scheyer,
Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith are following
up huge games against West Virginia with another gem. Scheyer has 13
points, Singler has 17 and Smith 11, accounting for 41 of the
Blue Devils' 54 points.
___
Gordon Hayward must sense he has to start scoring for Butler, driving to
the basket moments ago, only to get called for charging when
Duke guard Jon Scheyer
stepped in front of him.
It was a bang-bang play that could have gone either way.
Hayward got the call on the Bulldogs' next possession when he went
driving down the lane and was bopped over the head by 7-foot-1 center
Brian Zoubek. It was Zoubek's fourth foul, putting him on the bench with
just more than 11 minutes left in the second half.
Willie Veasley and Matt Howard sure aren't doing much for Butler, by the
way. They're a combined 2 for 14 from the field and have missed all
four of their 3-point attempts. They've also accounted for nearly half
of the Bulldogs' seven turnovers and five
personal fouls.
___
Kyle Singler just hit a 3-pointer after Butler had pulled ahead, his
third of the game. The junior forward is carrying Duke at this point,
with 15 points and six rebounds.
Duke leads 45-43, but the Bulldogs should be pleased to be this close
considering they've gotten very little production from Gordon Hayward.
Butler's best player is 2 of 7 from the field and has missed both of his
3-point attempts, accounting for just six points.
Shelvin Mack has 10 points for the Bulldogs, while Avery Jukes — hardly
known for putting up points — also has 10.
___
Matt Howard checked back in moments ago with three fouls and promptly
picked up his fourth about 30 seconds later. He headed back to the bench
for Butler.
It was a silly foul, too, scrapping for a rebound he had no chance of
getting.
Duke hasn't made a point of trying to get the ball inside since the
first couple of minutes, instead settling for short jumpers and
3-pointers — few of which are falling. It will be interesting to see
whether that approach changes with Howard back on the bench.
And with Butler leading 43-42 with 13 minutes left.
___
Duke is starting to look weary, allowing Ronald Nored and Shelvin Mack
to score on a pair of almost uncontested layups and give Butler a 40-38
lead.
Nolan Smith answered with a tough bucket inside, though, knotting the
game 40-all at the first media timeout of the second half. Through 25
minutes, we're no closer to deciding a national champion in
Indianapolis.
The
Blue Devils
have started to cool off from the field, especially beyond the arc,
where they're 4 of 15 for the game. Smith is 1 for 5 and
Jon Scheyer is 1 for 4.
That's good news for the Bulldogs, who are having their own problems
from the field. They're shooting just 36.6 percent overall and are 5 of
14 from 3-point range.
Whichever team can heat up over the final 15 minutes is likely to win.
___
It's hardly surprising in this back-and-forth game that Butler would
score the first points of the second half, pulling back ahead on a pair
of free throws by Gordon Hayward.
Kyle Singler came
back to hit another 3-pointer for Duke, making it 11 lead changes in the
game. Singler has hit a pair from beyond the arc and has a game-high 12
points.
Duke leads 36-34 with 18:37 remaining.
___
It's difficult to dissect where Butler winning the national championship
would fall in the spectrum of unlikely winners. After all, the
tournament has grown and evolved over the years, and it's not as if the
Bulldogs came out of nowhere.
They're a No. 5 seed and have won 25 straight games.
But remember for a moment that chalk dominated the brackets last year,
when everybody correctly assumed that North Carolina would run roughshod
through the tournament. It was the first time that all 12 of the Nos.
1-3 seeds made it to the round of 16.
The last team seeded fifth to reach the title game was Indiana in 2002,
when Maryland finally gave
Gary Williams his title. Before that it was
Florida as a No. 5 in 2000, when Michigan State cut down the nets in
the title game.
So who actually won the championship game that could match up with
Butler?
Go all the way back to 1988, when sixth-seeded Kansas won the title. Or
if you think any team with
Danny Manning shouldn't be considered an
underdog, then try 1985, when eighth-seeded Villanova defeated No. 1
seed Georgetown to win the championship.
Now that's improbable.
___
The first half has come to an end in Indianapolis, and anybody who
thought the magical run by Butler would come to a crashing end early
against Duke was sorely mistaken.
Duke 33, Butler 32.
Twenty minutes left to decide the national champion.
The Bulldogs are in the game mainly because of their bench, which
managed just five points against Michigan State in the semifinals but
has come up big against the
Blue Devils. Senior guard Avery Jukes is
making the most of the biggest game of his career, hitting a pair of
3-pointers and scoring 10 first-half points.
Rebounding has also been a key for the smaller Bulldogs, who have
scrapped their way to a 21-17 edge. That number is even more impressive
considering they outrebounded the Blue Devils 16-7 over the final 10
minutes of the first half.
That has helped Butler offset a torrid shooting pace by Duke, which is
13 of 26 from the field and 4 of 9 from beyond the arc.
___
The Bulldogs came out of a wisely called timeout by coach
Brad Stevens to answer
an 8-0 Duke run with a 7-0 spurt of their own, with senior Avery Jukes
hitting a jumper and a 3-pointer sandwiched around a basket by Gordon
Hayward.
As good as Butler has been, remember that most of these guys are coming
back next season. Jukes, Willie Veasley and little-used Nick Rodgers are
the only seniors.
Gordon Hayward is only a sophomore, and despite being an NBA prospect,
could very well make the decision to return for his junior year. Shelvin
Mack will also be a junior next year, and Matt Howard will be back as a
senior.
By contrast, Duke has a number of seniors:
Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek and
reserve guard Jordan Davidson. Junior forward
Kyle Singler might also test the NBA
waters.
Duke leads 33-32 with 3 seconds left in the first half.
___
Butler coach Brad Stevens
called a timeout after Duke put together an 8-0 run to take a 26-20
lead with about 5 minutes left in the first half.
Brian Zoubek began
the spurt with a basket inside, and Jon Scheyer made one of two foul
shots before draining a 3-pointer off an assist by Nolan Smith. Kyle
Singler followed with a layup of his own, forcing Stevens to call the
timeout.
Butler prefers low-scoring games and generally doesn't score points in
bunches, so it has to make sure the
Blue Devils don't get too far in front.
Remember what happened to West Virginia when the Duke lead reached
double figures in the semifinals.
___
Apparently, the officials are going to allow these guys to play. Or the
NCAA picked up a couple of referees from the UFC.
Butler guard Willie Veasley took it to the rack moments ago and was
body-checked to the floor, though no whistles blew. Duke forward Kyle
Singler ended up with the ball in his hands, then got bear-hugged by a
Butler player before he retreated on defense.
Maybe it was a makeup call, or perhaps the official popped the whistle
out of his throat, but Shelvin Mack earned a foul on
Duke guard Jon Scheyer
on the Bulldogs' following possession for what amounted to a love-tap.
So much for consistency.
An 8-0 run gives Duke a 26-20 lead with 5:08 left in the first half.
___
Matt Howard is another guy with a propensity for getting into foul
trouble, and the Butler big man just picked up his second and checked
out with about 8 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
The Bulldogs are really getting after Duke in the halfcourt, forcing
four turnovers already. Coach K said before the game that the Bulldogs'
defense was his biggest concern, especially how active they are with
their hands.
The crowd rocked Lucas Oil Stadium at the most recent media timeout with
the mid-major darlings on top of Duke, 20-18. Shelvin Mack has led the
way with eight points for Butler.
Kyle Singler has seven for Duke.
___
Duke center
Brian Zoubek
was treated by a trainer during a timeout, with a piece of gauze held
over what appeared to be a small cut on his forehead.
Zoubek is back on the court and logging some heavy minutes early.
The big man has gotten into foul trouble before, but he's playing a
smart first half, which should allow him to play more aggressively over
the final 20 minutes.
___
Matt Howard's head might be OK, but his free throw stroke sure isn't.
The Butler big guy has missed three of his first four attempts, and if
the Bulldogs want to stick with the
Blue Devils, they'd better make good on
their freebies.
Or keep hitting those 3-pointers.
Shelvin Mack is 2 for 2 from beyond the arc and Zach Hahn came off the
bench to knock one down, helping the Bulldogs edge ahead 12-11. The Blue
Devils answered behind Kyle Singler, though, and lead 16-14 with 11:05
left in the first half.
One of the big problems already for Butler is rebounding. The Blue
Devils' significant size advantage has already allowed them to get a
couple of second chances, and they have a 10-5 edge on the glass midway
through the first half.
___
Nolan Smith has already hit his first couple of baskets for Duke,
although the Bulldogs responded with a pair of hoops of their own to
make it 6-4 at the first media timeout.
Smith might be having the most charmed three weeks of his entire career.
He scored 19 in a semifinal victory over West Virginia and had 29
points in a victory over Baylor in the round of eight. Those two
masterful performances came after a 15-point outing against Purdue and
20 against California.
The athletic guard has the hot hand from the outside, but 7-foot-1
center
Brian Zoubek
is already asserting himself inside. He has a couple of rebounds and
has kept a couple of other missed shots alive, and Duke seems to be
intent on running its offense through him.
___
So much for everything running smoothly before the championship game.
Butler guard Ronald Nored was the last guy to take the floor because
NCAA officials had to stick the championship game patch on his jersey.
The Bulldogs' Matt Howard sure looks OK to start. He got the ball in his
hands on their first possession and got to the
free throw line, where he made one of two
to strike the first blow for Butler.
___
Blue II is worked up for the game, too.
The Butler mascot barked throughout introductions and had to be
restrained by his handler, which was also the case before the Bulldogs'
semifinal victory over Michigan State.
Maybe it's a good omen.
The bulldog has been making the media rounds all weekend and continues
to tweet about his experiences at
http://twitter.com/ButlerBlue2.
He posted a picture of himself at Lucas Oil Stadium about 15 minutes
ago.
___
Speaking of Coach K ...
There have been some rumors and anonymous sources saying that incoming
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire, would offer
Krzyzewski $12 million to $15 million per season to take over the
beleaguered NBA franchise.
Krzyzewski said through a spokesman that he hasn't been contacted by the
Nets and "wouldn't have any interest in the job." The Duke coach had a
brief flirtation with the
Los
Angeles Lakers job a few years ago, but has generally rejected
NBA overtures.
Speaking after a victory against Maryland on Feb. 13, Krzyzewski joked
that "no one's contacted me, and if they do, I think 'nyet' would be
easy for me to say."
___
Butler guard Shelvin Mack said moments ago that he is "100 percent"
after a bout with the stomach flu, which few people even realized he had
because of the much more public injury to Matt Howard.
Mack is the team's second-leading scorer, one of Butler's top 3-point
shooters and can handle the ball if the Blue Devils slap on a press. His
play will be critical for the Bulldogs.
Howard also said he'll be ready to go after sustaining what is thought
to have been a mild concussion against Michigan State on Saturday night.
Howard is the Bulldogs' third-leading scorer and second-leading
rebounder, and the only guy who can bang with Duke's inside guys.
___
The Blue Devils should have a reason to be wary of a young upstart like
Butler, especially if it begins to look through the history section of
its own media guide.
Back in 1990 and 1991, when the Duke dynasty was still taking shape,
Coach
K faced Jerry
Tarkanian and UNLV twice in the
Final Four. That was when the Rebels really
were Rebels and Duke came off as the good guy.
Led by
Larry Johnson
and Stacey Augmon, UNLV ran Duke out of the arena, 103-73, in the 1990
final. But the next year, behind
Christian Laettner and
Grant Hill, Duke won in
the semis on the way to the first of two straight national titles. The
Blue Devils added another in 2001 and, as the years have passed, the
perception has flipped.
Now, the
Blue Devils
are the team that is being hunted. Krzyzewksi can win his fourth title,
matching
Adolph Rupp
and putting him behind only
John Wooden on the career list.
"You try not to go through too much," Coach K said moments ago, when
asked what he told his team. "Just let them be themselves, not try to be
somebody else tonight."
Good advice, because being Duke is usually good enough.
___
The popular thing to do before a big game is to compare the matchups.
They go overwhelmingly in favor of the Blue Devils.
The front line of 7-foot-1
Brian Zoubek and three 6-foot-10 guys
dwarfs anything that Butler can put on the floor. That includes 6-8
forward Matt Howard, who has been dealing with the effects of the
"mildest of mild concussions," a team official said.
Duke guards Jon Scheyer
and Nolan Smith shoot the ball better than Butler point guard Ronald
Nored — who generally doesn't shoot. At all. And the inside-outside play
of
Kyle Singler
creates matchup problems for everyone wearing Bulldogs blue.
Just about the only place where Butler matches up is with Gordon
Hayward, who has become a star during this magical March run. He has
decent size, can shoot it from outside and has the ability to drive if
Zoubek or the other Duke bigs extend to the perimeter.
Then there are the coaches.
Brad Stevens is a former marketing official
who decided to follow his passion by becoming a basketball coach. He's
only 33 years old, or, the same age that
Mike Krzyzewski was when he took over the
Blue Devils 30 years ago.
Will experience factor into the outcome? Will the size, athleticism and
talent of the Blue Devils win the day? Will the edge in the individual
matchups really matter?
Because quite frankly, very little has gone according to script during
this tournament.
___
There are certainly plenty of distractions that come with playing for a
national title about 10 minutes from campus.
Class is apparently one of them.
Less than 12 hours before playing in the most important game of their
lives, several Butler players were sitting in classrooms. After their
morning classes, they headed over to the arena for a shootaround, then
stuck around downtown until the tip, which is scheduled for 9:21 p.m.
Star forward Gordon Hayward — the only big NBA prospect of the bunch —
said he had four classes scheduled for Monday and was happy to "try to
keep things normal."
The Bulldogs won't have that problem on Tuesday. University president
Bobby Fong, who crowd-surfed after one of the victories in the
NCAA tournament,
announced at a downtown pep rally earlier in the day that all classes
would be canceled.
"We're not crazy," Fong told the crowd.
___
The big story line the past couple of days has been whether Butler big
man Matt Howard will be able to play against the Blue Devils, after he
banged his head on the floor during the Bulldogs' semifinal victory over
Michigan State.
Howard has shown lingering effects from a concussion and he's been
listed as probable for the game. He's expected to play if he remains
symptom-free.
Howard joined his teammates in a shootaround about an hour before the
game, and team spokesman Jim McGrath said Howard participated in an
early afternoon shootaround at Lucas Oil Stadium, then returned for the
late session.
The underdog Bulldogs need the 6-foot-8 Howard to help contend with Duke
inside. The Blue Devils have 7-1 center
Brian Zoubek and three 6-10 players,
including the Plumlee brothers.
___
The national championship game is minutes from tipping off, and not many
folks predicted this matchup when they were filling out their brackets a
few weeks ago.
The cute, "Hoosiers"-like story of the hometown
Butler Bulldogs — who
play home games in
Hinkle
Fieldhouse, where parts of the move were filmed — against the
big, bad Blue Devils of Duke, with their storied tradition,
Cameron Crazies and
intimidating front line.
It's a school that has watched quite a few national championship games
on television against a school that has won three of them in the past
two decades. A school that claims cerebral former students like Kurt
Vonnegut against one that could field an all-star team of former players
that would include
Christian
Laettner,
Grant
Hill,
Jay Williams,
Bobby Hurley
and on and on.
Oddsmakers have the Blue Devils favored by 7 1/2 points, but what have
the Bulldogs cared about who is favored so far? They certainly didn't
when they beat big-name programs such as Michigan State, Kansas State
and
Syracuse on
their march through
March
Madness.
The programs aren't that different, though. Both pride themselves on
rosters full of brain matter, both are entirely devoid of one-and-done
stars, both go about things the right way, rather than hiring mercenary
coaches or cutting corners.
Perhaps that is what makes the matchup all the more intriguing.
So make sure that recliner is in the upright and locked position one
more time, the pizza, wings and beverages are close at hand, and the
remote control is firmly hidden from the wife (or husband) begging to
watch "Dancing With the Stars."
It's time for some hoops.
