USA - Messin' with the Big Boys

NEW YORK (The Tuesday College Diaries) - Hurrah for the little guy.

Duke may have emerged as the 2010 national champion, but this year's title game will be remembered for just how close Butler came to pulling off a huge upset.

Gordon Heyward, the best player on the floor, launched a halfcourt shot at the buzzer, then watched it hit the iron and bounce clear.

Duke wins 61-59.

Across America, everyone rooting for the underdog - which was just about everyone - slumped back in their chairs.

But what a game it was.

And that was down to Butler.

At a time when the NCAA is threatening to mess with the Tournament, to make it harder for true Cinderella stories to emerge by expanding the field to an unwieldy 96 teams, Butler came along to remind us all of the magic March can bring.

Okay, as a number five seed, Butler wasn't the most unlikely title pretender in the field, but the Bulldogs were pretty unlikely when the Tournament began.

But throughout they played with heart, with intensity, and with a team ethic that upset several teams along the way.

They refused to be intimidated by Duke's talent, Duke's credentials as a No. 1 seed, or Duke's experience at this level.

They fought throughout, and in the end had two chances to win it - the halfcourt heave came after Heyward had earlier missed with 3.6 seconds left.

"We just came up a bounce short," lamented Butler coach Brad Stevens, who just earned himself a national reputation either way.

Butler came on an incredible run, winning 25 straight games prior to taking on Duke.

They just couldn't get it done one more time on a night when Kyle Singler had 19 points for Duke, supported by Jon Scheyer's 15 and Nolan Smith's 13.

"First of all, it was a great basketball game. I want to congratulate an amazing Butler team and their fans," Duke (and Team USA) coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Fabulous year. We played a great game, they played a great game. It's hard for me to say it, to imagine that we're the national champions."

Duke deserve all the credit due any national champion - they just won't be what this game is remembered for.

The nation had taken Butler to their hearts.

The little school, based only 5.6 miles from where the title game was played in Indianapolis, stayed in the fight all the way and never let Duke get away as the Blue Devils, so reliant on the three-ball, struggled early from long-range against Butler's intense defensive effort.

"Both teams and all the kids on both teams played their hearts out," Krzyzewski said. "There was never more than a couple, a few points separating, so a lot of kids made big plays for both teams."

Many expected a blowout - for Butler to finally get taught what it was like to play at this level.

But those people weren't taking the Bulldogs seriously. And this was a serious team.

The lead for either team never exceeded six in one of the best title games for years.

But Butler struggled to shoot it too, making only 20 of 58 (34.5%), and that wasn't enough.

They don't get a ring, but the Bulldogs can still me enormously happy with everything they've achieved.

"I said yesterday that when you coach these guys, you can be at peace with whatever result you achieve from a won-loss standpoint because of what they gave -- they gave everything we had," Stevens said.

"There's certainly nothing to hang your head about. I told them in there, what they've done, what they did together, will last longer than one night, regardless of the outcome."

Smokey Roberts
FIBA