Butler did everything right—except make shots

Published Tuesday, Apr 5, 2011 at 1:40 am EDT
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HOUSTON—Bad. I'm sorry, but that was just bad. This is probably the moment to talk excitedly about the winner.

Butler's Khyle Marshall, right, sits in the locker room with teammates after their men's NCAA college basketball championship game against Connecticut Monday, April 4, 2011, in Houston. Connecticut won 53-41. (AP Photo)

Connecticut did win the national championship Monday night.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun steps into history with his third national title. Confetti fell from the ceiling and the players cut down the nets.


The story of the night was Butler. It was historically bad. Do you know how much of a heel I feel like just saying those words?

But this is about truth. And the truth is, this was probably the worst championship game ever.

Layups, 3-pointers, jump shots, tips, 1-foot throw-ins. You name it, Butler missed it.

The Bulldogs made 12 field goals the entire game. Twelve. They made three two-point baskets. Three. They made 18.8 percent of their shots. Eighteen-point eight.

I have to keep repeating myself to see if reality will sink in.

It won't. It won't. It was the worst shooting night in a championship game in NCAA history.

"It's hard to talk about the game and really care about the intricacies of the game when you're talking about the personal relationships and the thing that you develop as a team over time," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "The only thoughts that are going through my mind are for these guys. What they've done is remarkable. It can't be overstated."

I'm not here to console the losers, but you can't help but to feel sorry for Cinderella.

The question is whether Butler just had one of those awful nights, or if it represented something bigger about college basketball, the opposite of what Butler was supposed to represent.

Butler carried meaning with it. These are a bunch of young men who have not been treated as rock stars. They have learned to be accountable, which only made this burn even more, I'm sure.

They were about graduating players, a fresh-faced coach in nerdy glasses.


Instead, maybe they showed just what critics were saying all along about college basketball: It isn't any good. The stars all run off to the NBA as soon as league rules allow it, after one year of college. So the NBA is having one of its best years, loaded by stars, including Chicago's Derrick Rose, who would be a senior now.

And college hoops? Without stars, it was left to rely on old values such as hustle and teamwork and defense. Butler was going to prove you could win it all with those things.

Instead, the team with the best player won.

Kemba Walker, sure first-round draft pick, had a bad first half, but finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, and was named Final Four MOP.

"You know, we all have confidence in each other," said Butler's best player, Shelvin Mack, who made 4-of-15 shots to, um, lead the team with 13 points. "If you have a wide open shot, you might as well shoot it. They just weren't falling tonight."

This wasn't Butler's fault. Maybe that's just me feeling sorry for the Bulldogs. But maybe college basketball is just down overall, and a team that plays together under a great coach, with the experience of a run to the national title game a year earlier, was enough to get in way over their heads.

At one point this year, Butler lost four of five, to Wright State, Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Youngstown State. Then, it won 14 straight until Monday night.

Imagine how Butler's players must have felt when one shot after another just ... wouldn't ... fall. They kept telling themselves to believe, to believe. Just keep shooting, they will fall.

They always have before. They kept believing in themselves and in the system, and Stevens mixed in different sets. He even went with four guards at one point.

Years from now, these guys will remember this whole ride, not just the night. And maybe that's the way to look at this. But for now, you just have the feel that Cinderella got to the ball and was dancing with toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her glass slipper.

With the whole thing about to go viral on YouTube.

There is not much to analyze about how the game was won. Both teams were terrible in the first half. Butler couldn't make 3-pointers, and UConn's defense packed in under the basket, playing rough and ugly.

In the second half, UConn made a few baskets. It was just 41.7 percent for the half, but it seemed like so much more because of the contrast.

"The least of a coach's concern is whether or not shots go in," Stevens said. "It's how you're acting, how you're operating, how you're screening, how you're getting to the point where your shot is taken. Then, you trust the work you've put in, the preparation you've put in."

Every good, wholesome and sappy thing is still true about Butler. We hoped to celebrate virtues. Instead, UConn won the national championship!


