Sooooo Close

What a heartbreaker...

Man oh man.

I haven't been so emotionally wrapped up in a college basketball game* in a long time. Had Hayward's desperation three banked in -- and it was so, so close -- that becomes arguably the most famous play in sports history. Obviously, time would be the ultimate judge of that, but one of the biggest upsets ever? On one of the craziest shots ever? Over the biggest, baddest, most hated program in the land? It almost happened. That game will still endure pretty well. A real classic.

* Financially wrapped up in a game perhaps, but not purely emotionally.

As good as Brad Stevens was this tournament, I don't think he necessarily made the right call in having Hayward go one-on-one to try and win the game. Granted, Hayward is a great player and he got a makeable though difficult shot, and hindsight is 20/20, but Butler had actually gotten a couple of easy looks recently thanks to some nice passing. That said, it would have been even worse had they taken too much time and the 5th option hucked up a bad shot as the time expired. I guess I can live with Hayward trying to win it on his own, but, I don't know, it didn't exactly strike me as "The Butler Way" that we'd heard so much about. It was tough to see Hayward come up short. He seems like a good kid and he really carried that team for long stretches this tournament. He hopefully has some more big games ahead of him in college and then a successful NBA career.

Butler, though they lost, did prove something in that game. Because they don't play a pretty, fluid style it's easy to look at their games and view them as getting lucky, but they're a tough team that makes the other team work for everything. Barely losing to the nation's best team (and I'll give Duke their due, just ask West Virginia or Baylor) I think solidified that Butler was every bit as good as their tournament finish suggests. Their scoring droughts were excruciating to watch at times; they were probably just one playmaker, an athletic big man perhaps, away from being the kind of team that looked as good as they actually were.

As much as it's fun to rag on Duke, I don't have anything against any of the big three (Smith, Scheyer, Singler) especially after that story at halftime about Smith's dad dying. On the other hand, Zoubek is easy to root against and he made me think to myself multiple times, "He's just big! He's not even that good! Arrghh!" as he grabbed another clutch rebound or tapped the ball back out to the guards. Coach K is a tough one because I don't like him for the most part (not that he did anything wrong, politics aside) but he is the coach of Team USA. Duke may not be the Yankees but they sure seem like it when they're playing Hickory High.

I would have absolutely loved for Butler to win that game, though maybe their moment is just beginning, Butler only loses two of it's important players, and keeps Hayward, Mack, Howard, and Nored. Rematch in the 2011 Final Four?