Duke Wins the 2010 NCAA Tournament

Chalk in the End

When is it a surprise when a #1 seed (Duke) beats a #5 seed (Butler) in the NCAA championship game? Usually the answer is never, but after the large string of upsets throughout the first 4 rounds of the tournament, why shouldn’t it continue into the championship game? At the beginning of the tournament if someone had asked you who would win between Duke and Butler if they were to meet in the national championship game there wouldn’t be a doubt in your mind that Duke would win. What if someone had asked you that same question right before the game started, I bet you wouldn’t answer as quickly. Chances are if you didn’t have Duke in your bracket you were rooting for Butler because who doesn’t want to see an underdog come out on top? But there is a difference in terms of rooting for 
Butler to win and expecting Butler to win and I believe many of us fully expected Butler to win. Why wouldn’t we? They were riding a 25 game win streak going into the finals, they had easily beaten a UTEP team in the first round who many (including myself) had as an upset game, and they beat the #1 and #2 seeds in their region, Syracuse and Kansas St. respectively, in consecutive games. But this story tale unfortunately did not end happily ever after, as the higher seed did prevail, but certainly not without a fight.

Duke’s Unsung Heroes

I’ve praised Butler for their improbable run, but I want to give credit to Duke. Yes, out of all the #1 seeds they probably had the easiest run to the Final Four, but you still have to win six consecutive games in order to be crowned national champion. You can credit Duke’s Big 3; Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, and Nolan Smith; for bringing the trophy back to Durham, NC for the first time since 2001 but I’m going to give credit to players outside of those 3, and those player are center Brian Zoubek, and forwards Lance Thomas and the Plumlee brothers (Miles and Mason). Against Baylor in the Elite Eight, Duke’s first true test of the tourney, it was a close game until momentum changed with 3:36 left in the 2nd half as Nolan Smith walked to the free throw line for 2 shots. He made the first one, tying the game at 61, but missed the 2nd. After it seemed like Baylor had controlled the rebound, the ball continued to bounce around and eventually Lance Thomas grabbed it and threw it to Nolan Smith who had stepped behind the 3-point line and subsequently drained a 3, putting the Blue Devils up 3. That was all Duke needed and they never looked back. In that game the 4 players who I mentioned had a combined 18 offensive rebounds (8 of those going to Thomas). 18 offensive rebounds!!!!! And that’s only between 2 starters and 2 bench players, not the entire team. That’s 18 extra chances that Zoubek, Thomas, and the Plumlees gave Duke to score and Duke took advantage. From those 18 offensive boards Duke scored 17 second chance points. Need a minute to digest that? That’s incredible, especially in a game that pretty much went down to the wire. That’s 17 points that Duke really shouldn’t have gotten. Although the next two games against West Virginia and Butler were more low key on the glass, it didn’t stop Zoubek from getting a combined 11 offensive rebounds. Give all the credit you want to the Big 3, but I’m looking at the next 4 when I dissect their run to the national championship.

The Clock Strikes Midnight

Butler’s semi-cinderella run to the finals did end and unfortunately it did not end with the nets around their necks. They did go down swinging though. I can’t say enough about sophomore guard/forward Gordon Hayward who nearly won it for Butler twice in the last 5 seconds of the game. The first came with Butler down 1 on a fade away baseline jumper which he had to shoot over the outstretched arm of Zoubek. Honestly, if they had paused the video while the ball was in mid air, I would have bet any amount of money that that ball was going in, not because I wanted it to go in, but because I expected it to go in. Instead, it hit the far side of the rim and bounced back to Zoubek. After Zoubek went 1 for 2 on his free throws, Hayward received a pass and put up a runner from half court which, again, looked like it was going to go through the bottom of the net. Instead, the ball hit the backboard, hit the top of the rim, and then bounced out. Twice Hayward had to shoot a difficult shot to win the game, one from half court and one over a 7’1” center with his arm stretched straight up, and twice it almost went in. If anything, Hayward showed the nation that he may go to a non-power conference school, but he can certainly play with the big boys. The one thing that I was a little disappointed I didn’t see was Mike Krzyzewski talking to Hayward after the game for a couple of minutes. Coach K spoke to Hayward for a few seconds, but I feel like talking to such a distinguished coach like Coach K would mean a lot to Hayward and I would think Coach K would understand that and thus tell him how well he played, his bright future, etc. It’s not like this is Coach K’s first title, he has been there before and thus I feel he should have taken some time to console Hayward who almost snatched the title away from him.

Boise State Remake

In 2007, mid major Boise State’s football team went up against power house Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Nobody gave Boise a chance and in fact they ended up winning in overtime in a game that could definitely be considered one of the best college football games ever. For probably the first time in college football, a mid major had beaten a power conference team in a prestigious bowl game, opening the eyes of the nation. Thanks to the 2006-2007 Boise State Broncos, mid majors now and in the future will no longer be scoffed at when they are considered for high stakes bowl games. Butler helped do the same thing for college basketball mid majors. Unlike Boise State, Butler is not the mid major pioneer for their sport, Utah was runner up in 1998 and in 1990 UNLV won the championship, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to remind people that it may be time to remove the tag of “mid major” from the non-power conference teams. Give credit to Gonzaga as well for helping Butler out on this mission as Gonzaga has been winning consistently in the NCAA tournament over the last few years.