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Last year, Butler University’s sophomore forward Gordon Hayward came within a few inches of making NCAA history, missing a half-court shot in the National Championship game against No. 1 Duke University that would have won the game and given No. 5 Butler its very first NCAA men’s basketball title.
Now, just one year later, a No. 8 seed Bulldogs team is at it again, earning their second straight Final Four berth after an overtime win against No. 2 Florida on Saturday.
The Elite Eight Regional Final matchup win marked the Bulldogs’ 13th straight, which includes tournament wins against No. 9 Old Dominion and No. 1 Pittsburgh in last weekend’s second and third rounds, followed by a dismantling of No. 4 Wisconsin in Thursday’s Sweet 16 Regional Semifinal matchup.
The team’s shocking journey to the national championship game in 2010 quickly became college basketball’s latest Cinderella story, and with the Final Four being hosted inside the school’s hometown city of Indianapolis, Butler was a clear fan-favorite over four-time National Champion Duke.
After the conclusion of the 2010 season, the Bulldogs were forced to watch their superstar Hayward take his talents to Salt Lake after being chosen with the ninth overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz.
Butler began 2011 with few high hopes for a season of redemption, losing four of their first eight regular season games, which included a 12-point loss in a 2010 National Championship rematch with Duke.
The team put together a respectable stretch of wins during December and early January, going 9-1 only to embarrassingly drop four out of five to conference opponents midway through the season.
The Bulldogs ended their poor regular season play in a three-way tie for first place in the Horizon League at 13-5 with Cleveland State and the University of Milwaukee and were forced to win the conference title on the road in Milwaukee for a berth in the national tournament.
Three-time All-American senior forward Matt Howard has been the Bulldogs’ biggest contributor and heart of the team, leading the team in points per game with 16.7, rebounds with 7.7, and blocks with 0.6, while also coming up big in almost every contest that has come down to the wire.
Butler will face Virginia Commonwealth University, after VCU upset No. 1 seed University of Kansas in the Elite Eight, on April 2 in Houston for a try at their second-straight trip to the national title game. In a bracket that has already seen three No. 1-seeded teams fall including Ohio State and defending champion Duke, anything can happen this year.
VCU will be Butler’s toughest roadblock they’ve faced all year long, but regardless of what happens this weekend, the underdog Bulldogs have once again proved their worth.
