Running Final Four blog

I’m in Indianapolis for the Final Four so I’ll be posting any trip related “stuff” right here.
I’ll also be doing some Tweeting on @RockChalkJBlog, so check that out.
I landed in Indianapolis last night and the airport was all decked out for the Final Four. I’m getting my tickets later today and will be sitting in the nosebleeds, as usual.

I’m rooting for ABD (Anybody but Duke), but more specifically Butler and West Virginia and Butler winning it all. Butler’s defense has been solid all year long and no one has scored more than 59 points on them since late February and only two teams since February began has that happened. Oh, they’re undefeated since December 22nd, too.

I don’t expect Butler to win it all, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

So let’s get this weekend started.

UPDATE – Saturday:

Butler beats Michigan State and Duke beats West Virginia. My seats were pretty good. Here are some pictures from where I was sitting.

So Duke plays Butler on Monday night.  I have a feeling Duke wins, unfortunately. But I will absolutely be rooting for Butler. Butler’s defense was stellar against Michigan State and it was a good game to watch.

Bob Huggins had a touching moment with De’sean Butler after he hurt his knee. De’Sean Butler is to West Virginia as a Sherron Collins is to Kansas.

UPDATE – Sunday:

Saw Doc Sadler from Nebraska and Tom Izzo at the Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis today. On my way back to the hotel, I saw Paul Hewitt from Georgia Tech. That’s all I’ve really got for right now.
UPDATE: Wednesday

I’ve had a little over 24 hours to reflect on the National Championship.

I’ve decided that it is either the second or third best championship game I’ve been to (out of six).

1999: UConn beat Duke 77-74

2002: Maryland beat Indiana 64-52

2004: UConn beat Georgia Tech 82-73

2006: Florida beat UCLA 73-57

2008: Kansas beat Memphis 75-68

2010: Duke beat Butler 61-59

Reflecting on this, it is the closest margin of victory in a championship game. However, the KU game was an overtime game. I rank them: 2008, 2010/1999, 2004, 2002, 2006. 2010 and 1999 are very interchangeable.
The case for 1999 is that it was the biggest upset, in terms of the -9.5 underdog UConn was. This was also a higher-scoring game, so it was more exciting throughout.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWIDG5OV-U&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The case for 2010 was that it was a “David vs. Goliath” match-up. Duke is a household name and Butler was a team that hardly anyone paid attention to this season.The last two minutes were really exciting and I honestly don’t remember the 1999 championship game that much.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzEdXWd34N8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Both were exciting games so right now I give the edge to Butler because of the two-potential game winning shots in the last 10 seconds of the game.

I understood Butler was underseeded, which is why I had them going to at least the Sweet 16 in all of my brackets.  I had them losing to either Syracuse or K-State, too. As we all know, this tournament wasn’t very chalky… My Final 4 was Duke, West Virginia, Kansas and Kansas State. Kansas State was one win away from being there while Kansas should have been there (more on this at another time). While I didn’t have Butler in any of my Final 4’s, they did impress me enough to advance them pretty far. No way would I have thought Butler would have won it at all at the beginning of the tournament (mainly because I believed Kansas was the best team in the country).

Butler doesn’t lose much going into next year and I think they make their way back to the Final 4 again.  I will, as well as a lot of other people, check out more of their games and even root for them a little bit. Brad Stevens is a great coach and they’re a team that no one can really hate. There’s not many of those teams out there. They do the right things, spend virtually nothing on their program and he does a great job. He’s the best up-and-coming coach in the NCAA as he’s won more in his first three years than anyone has in NCAA history (89-15). I expect him to eventually move on to a bigger program, but I really hope his loyalty stays in Indianapolis and Butler pays him heftily for his successes.

Moving on to Coach K… How lucky was Duke? They were an inch away from losing…twice. With 5:07, Duke should have been called for a flagrant foul. Zoubek intentionally missed the second free throw with 3.6 seconds left (???!!?!?!).

I won’t make excuses… but Butler was very close to winning this game. They missed a lot of easy buckets in the paint and those two shots by Hayward at the end were so very close to falling.
Anyways, it was a great championship game. It was one I will never forget. I enjoyed my time in Indianapolis and I hope to be back to a championship game in 2012.
One more thing to clear up: Indianapolis > San Antonio. Anyone arguing differently is a fool. Indianapolis has more things to do, is more centrally located and the stadium is way better. San Antonio is guaranteed great weather and it has the riverwalk, but Indianapolis was fantastic this last weekend.