One cannot help but wonder if Butler head men’s basketball coach Brad Stevens is standing beneath the basket at Lucas Oil Stadium right now, tape measure in hand, recreating the iconic “Hoosiers” scene.
Hinkle Fieldhouse doesn’t look so big anymore.
Five miles from Butler’s home court — the very site where fictional Hickory High School head coach Norman Dale had his team measure the height of the basket — the final preparations are underway for Saturday’s Final Four games.
Who better to throw support behind than Butler?
Northern Iowa and gutsy guard Ali Farokhmanesh made an early claim for America’s Cinderella team, but even Ali fell.
Butler just went about its business, as unheralded in its last four victories as it was in the first 20-consecutive wins of its three-month unbeaten streak.
No. 12-seed Texas-El Paso was a popular upset pick in the first round. Butler beat the Miners by 18, then held off 13th-seeded, Cinderella-contender Murray State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Bulldogs dispatched top-seeded Syracuse by four and took down No. 2-seed Kansas State by seven, earning the Horizon League’s first Final Four berth.
The team remained as steady on the court as its 33-year-old coach did on the sideline. But who could blame it?
It looks as if Stevens took a mid-major program to the Final Four before he ever had to use a razor — the kid that leads 15 other kids has no worries.
Now, Butler is pitted against Michigan State and head coach Tom Izzo, 22 years Stevens’ elder. In the battle of No. 5 seeds from the Midwest and West regions, the Bulldogs remain synonymous with underdogs.
But they should also be America’s favorite.
Before the 1951 Indiana high school championship game, Hickory guard Merle Webb told his team, “Let’s win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here.”
Forward Gordon Hayward may not tell his team the same thing, but they will think it.
Michigan State is a Final Four veteran with six appearances in the last 12 years. The Spartans were not a popular pick in what should have been called the Kansas bracket, but Izzo, he of the always-raspy voice and Steve Mariucci bromance, won enough.
Now it’s the Bulldogs’ turn in their own backyard, and State knows the potential for what a hometown advantage can do this time of year.
(See: 2009 Final Four in Detroit.)
That was the Spartans’ year. Take down predetermined national champion North Carolina and spoil Tyler Hansbrough’s farewell party — find someone, without money on the line, that didn’t want that.
It didn’t work out, but this year, “Welcome to Indiana basketball,” they’ll say.
And if the Bulldogs get past State, there are only more villains — this time of year it is only black or white, good-guys or bad-guys, Butler or villains — waiting.
West Virginia took down John Calipari’s freshmen, for which everyone should be grateful — give it a few years until there is an NCAA investigation into Calipari’s newest team — and earned another game until the Mountaineers are the bad guys.
Before that, there is Duke.
No explanation is necessary.
The New York-New Jersey Mountaineers took Bob Huggins to his first Final Four since 1992, but don’t expect Huggy Bear to upgrade from his sweatsuit for the occasion — he’s no Jay Wright.
Michigan State, West Virginia and Duke each have their flaws — both on the court and in fans’ hearts — but don’t support the Bulldogs for who they are not.
Get behind Butler, the school with an enrollment of 4,500, because it can win it for the teams that never had the chance, for the young head coach who gave up his job as a marketing associate for a pharmaceutical company to return to the hardwood.
I would hope you would support the Bulldogs for who they are.
America, this is your team.
— Steven Miller accepts comments, criticisms and “Go Butler!” mail at stevenmi@eden.rutgers.edu