Butler advances to the NCAA Finals!!

The Butler Bulldogs have advanced to the NCAA Finals!  I think it's the first time a mid-major not named Memphis has made the championship game since Indiana State (with Larry Bird) in 1979.  It's an incredible achievement, and I have to think that no matter who they play (Duke or West Virginia) Butler will be America's team that night. 

The game itself was a good on.  Both teams were tied at the half, with Butler pulling out to an early 2nd half lead.  Tom Izzo's Michigan State teams will never disappear on you and despite foul trouble for most of their front court they held Butler without a field goal for what felt like 37 years.  As it happens, though, Butler isn't exactly a poor defending team and they held MSU to a similar interminably long no-FG stretch.  That brought it right down to the wire with Butler winning 52-50.  MSU attempted the missed FT and didn't get it in.  I would have preferred this to be the Finals, as I like both teams considerably more than Duke or WVU... But this way, I guess, I won't have to feel that little pang of regret to see MSU eliminated.

A couple of other game notes, Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack combined for 25 of Butler's 28 first half points.  In the second half, Mack was mostly sidelined with muscle spasms in his thighs and only played 8 or 9 minutes.  The duo only had 8 points in the second half and Butler only 24.  Hayward came up with some monster plays in the last couple of minutes in the game however to decide the contest.  Another interesting thing happened with Tom Izzo getting very very fired up during the last play of the game, with Draymond Green (who'd just fouled out) pushing Izzo away from the ref and giving him a giant bearhug to keep him from getting T'd up.  It was a little humorous, but I thought it was also an illustration of just how much Izzo's players trust and respect him. 

I almost don't want to mention it, since Butler pulled it out, but the only thing that detracted a bit for me was in the last four minutes, the refs really started calling a lot of very very questionable calls against Butler.  It didn't end up affecting the outcome, but it helped get things a little closer for MSU.  It may have just been a coincedence, as so far it hasn't seemed like the refs have dogged Butler very often earlier in the tournament.  I've always got my eyes open to this kind of thing, but refs need to be consistent-- whether a school is from a BCS conference or not... And maybe they were.  Butler did have a sizeable "foul lead," but it just seemed to go one way suddenly.