2010 NCAA tournament

[LMITOUT]

If they would have called it by the book half of the Butler players would have fouled out. It was practically murder under the 3pt line but that is Butler's style of play and the refs let them get away with it. If not for looking the other way, the margin would have been greater than two pts at the end of the game and most likely a blowout.

Duke is under the high-power microscope and people like to see fouls and infractions that simply aren't there just because they despise Duke due to how great they are and have been. It's just the way it is and will be for as long as they keep winning. They are the Yankees of college BB and people want them to lose so they'll whine about something each and every time they win a game. People say they win because they get the calls.......but maybe they win because they're good!!

For some reason people like to remember the calls that go Duke's way, but conveniently seem to forget the ones that don't. And there were more than enough that didn't last night.

[IceAge@work]

If they would have called it by the book half of the Butler players would have fouled out. It was practically murder under the 3pt line but that is Butler's style of play and the refs let them get away with it. If not for looking the other way, the margin would have been greater than two pts at the end of the game and most likely a blowout.

Duke is under the high-power microscope and people like to see fouls and infractions that simply aren't there just because they despise Duke due to how great they are and have been. It's just the way it is and will be for as long as they keep winning. They are the Yankees of college BB and people want them to lose so they'll whine about something each and every time they win a game. People say they win because they get the calls.......but maybe they win because they're good!!

For some reason people like to remember the calls that go Duke's way, but conveniently seem to forget the ones that don't. And there were more than enough that didn't last night.

Duke was physical and aggressive in the paint. Butler was physical and aggressive on the perimeter. It's how both teams played all tournament long. IMO the officials did a good job keeping order and allowing both teams to play to their strengths.

Duke was the more effecient offense most of the night and had many chances to open this game up. They just never got it done. Mostly because the Bulldogs simply wouldn't let it happen.

With three minutes to go I got exactly what I wanted. A close game. Butler imposed there will defensively and the Blue Devils choked a little. It was right there for the taking and the shot(s) just didn't fall. No reason for Butler to hang their head and Duke deserved to win. Hard to ask for a much better finish to this tournament than that.

[zepman]

I thought they were partial to Duke...they needed all the help they could get.

[LMITOUT]

Dan Barreiro - KFAN

INDIANAPOLIS -- If Shooter had been listening on the old Philco radio from his hospital bed, you know what he would have been saying out loud -- screaming in a stream of consciousness -- while he paced during that last timeout and filibustered to the nurse, to another patient, to a potted plant, to anybody or anything that might have been willing to listen. Including himself.

"You didn't get but one field goal, for what? Something like eight minutes? You're down five with three minutes to go. You cut it to 1, don't ask me how. And you got the ball, under your own basket, against the bluebloods, with a chance to win. One basket. That's all you need. That's all you can ask, brother. That's all you can ever ask."

In the movies, of course, they ask for more. They ask for the coach to call the play, and Jimmy Chitwood to look in the coach's face and say, "I'll make it" and the teams to come out of the huddle, and Chitwood to do exactly what he is supposed to do. Drain the shot. Every time. And for Shooter to whoop with joy, while listening to the Philco, and then to cry.

Happens that way in real life, sometimes. But in real life, it can also be a bit more complicated, sometimes even cruel. With the score 60-59, the coach, Brad Stevens made the right call during the timeout. Even though Gordon Hayward was 2-for-9, he called Hayward's number, and Hayward might not have said in the huddle that he'd make it, but with the athletic arrogance that marks the great ones, he no doubt thought he would.

"We wanted to get the ball to [Hayward] and let him make a play," Stevens said.

Hayward did driving towards the basket, going left, coming back right, then lofting a high-arching 12-footer to win the game. "It felt good," he said.

It looked good.

But it was a bit long. "Just wasn't there," Hayward said.

In real life, it was a tough shot, maybe tougher than necessary in that the driving Hayward had the defender, Brian Zoubek, off balance and should have driven into him, forcing contact, rather than fade away. Hayward was 8-for-8 from the line. Then again, it's hard to get a whistle that late. You can ask Michigan State about that.

Bottom line: The shot was just long, and after Zoubek grabbed the rebound and was fouled, he made one free throw and foolishly missed the second on purpose. A semi-desperation half-court 3 by Hayward, not a bad look under the circumstances, banked off the rim and came out.

And most of the nation, desperately wanting Hollywood to intrude on real life, is handed another reason to hate Duke. Maybe even despise Duke like never before.

After all, the Dookies ruined the story.

The scorn is not deserved. The Blue Devils, of course, were under no obligation to play the foils, just so America could go to sleep having watched the perfect ending to a new feel-good movie. They wanted the grand prize, too, had labored hard for it, and as a card-carrying member of the Butler Admiration Society, as absurdly rich as the story might have been if one of Hayward's shots goes down, I must tell you that Duke deserved the victory.

On this night, Duke showed it could out-gritty the grittiest team in the tournament. Some nights, you just have to survive.

Duke survived.

Their big-time shooter (Kyle Singler) shot better than Butler's (Hayward); their foul-plagued inside guy (Brian Zoubek) played a more active, busy, defensive game than Butler's foul-plagued guy (Matt Howard), who committed such dumb fouls that Norman Dale might have cut him at halftime. Howard did get a couple of clutch baskets late, but for much of the second half, the Duke defense had made the key defensive adjustment: Cutting off the Bulldogs' penetration and making almost everything hard for Butler near the basket.

As close as it was, almost all night, it just seemed like everything came a little harder for Butler.

You want the heart-breaking twist? During the first five games of the tournament, Butler had held each opponent under 60. First time that had ever been done in the shot-clock era of the NCAA tournament. If Butler had held Duke to 59 in regulation on Monday night, it would have been overtime and the two teams might still be playing.

Instead, Duke gets to 61, and wins. Several Butler players were asked what they will remember more when they look back: That they got to the championship game, or that they lost on the last possessions.

"For me, it's going to be the loss," Hayward said. "Hate losing. It's one of the worst feelings personally that I have is losing."

Even in defeat, that's the beauty of the Butler story, ain't it Shooter? They want no patronizing pat on the back from the victors. They want no salute for losing by 2 points to a team that had beaten everybody else in this tourney by an average of 17.

They want no cute Little Engine That Could bouquets. They came to this Dance to win.