Persistence paid off for Butler.
My job as a sportswriter usually keeps me grounded in the role of an unbiased observer.
But, over the past couple of weeks, I was fortunate enough to go along for the ride. I watched the Butler basketball team come into the NCAA tournament and receive a 12 seed, only to immediately be written off by supposed experts -- including myself -- as having no chance.-á-á
Nobody thought the small Indianapolis college with an enrollment of near four thousand could topple Southeastern Conference powerhouse Mississippi State. Nobody thought the Dogs could beat Rick Pitino's upstart Louisville Cardinals. No one except for Darnell Archey, Brandon Miller, Joel Cornette and the rest of the young men involved on what is now one of the country's elite college programs.
Current Nebraska head coach Barry Collier (1989-2000) laid the foundation for the fast-rising mid-major. While Collier was at the helm, the team took small steps each year in a promising direction. Then an opportunity came for Collier to move on to a major Division I program, one he could not turn down.
In the 2002-01 season Thad Motta stepped in to coach the team . Butler not only won the Horizon League regular season and tournament titles that year, but upset Wake Forest 79-63 in the first round of the NCAAs. That was just a year after the Bulldogs gave the second-seeded Florida Gators the scare of their lives, before falling in overtime.
Like his predecessor, Motta received an offer he could not refuse and accepted the head coaching job at Xavier.
Two years ago, Todd Lickliter was promoted to the top spot in large part due to his work as a long-time assistant. Hence, there were three seasons and three different coaches for Butler.
Lesser teams would have crumbled. It would take a couple seasons of rebuilding before there would be any visible signs of improvement. Not this group.
They laughed in the face of adversity and moved on.
Wins over Indiana, Purdue, Ball State and Indiana State proved not to be enough as the selection committee snubbed their 25-5 resume in 2002. Being crowned "champions of Indiana" by local media outlets seemed, well, irrelevant to the committee. A loss in the first game of the conference tourney sent them packing for the NIT.
Again, lesser teams would have ceased to exist. You would have seen players come on television to whine about such an injustice. Todd Lickliter got in a few shots and who could blame the guy. But, for the most part, the athletes sucked it up and shrugged it off.
The Bulldogs came back this season to prove themselves once again. What followed was another 25-5 season. Once again, they were defeated in the finals of the conference tourney.
The committee, however, just could not ignore their high Ratings Percentage Index this time around.
The `Dogs were matched up with perhaps the toughest five seed in the field in Mississippi State--a team that wreaked havoc in the SEC tournament and thought of as a lock for the elite eight.
Butler proved us wrong. The team made critics who doubted whether it belonged in the tourney eat a big, steaming plate of crow.
Comparable to Jimmy Valvano and North Carolina State's miracle in 1983, Valparaiso's improbable last second buzzer beater in 1998 and Ball State's sweet sixteen run in 1990...Butler proved that courage, sheer determination and the will to win sometimes makes all the difference.
Forget the term Cinderella because their trek was no fairytale. Butler is for real. I know that I will never underestimate their program again. Not in this lifetime at least.
Write to Pat at pbray@bsu.edu
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