Butler Basketball

It's March again, but why all the madness? Well, heading into the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I National Championship Tournament, many analysts and fans alike felt that there was not one clear cut powerhouse team that was favored to win. We all expected to see an upset here and there. However, no one could have predicted the insanity that would unfold in this year's tournament. As fans, we watched upsets galore pile up as early as the first round of the Men's NCAA tournament.

FIRST ROUND UPSETS: In the first round of tournament play, we were surprised to see Morehead State's victory over the No. 4 seed Louisville Cardinals, and the Richmond Spiders' victory over the No. 5 seed Vanderbilt Commodores.

The Kentucky Wildcats had a scare in their first game of this years competition. They narrowly escaped defeat at the hands of Princeton, the school known for scaring—and even beating—some of college basketball's most storied programs in the NCAA tournament. Although the Princeton Tigers never gave up, eventually they did fall to the Wildcats by a score of 59-57.

The No. 8 Butler Bulldogs, now in the Final Four, also had a scare in the first round. They won on a buzzer-beater over the No. 9 seed Old Dominion Monarchs, 60-58.

Some other notable upsets in the first round were: No. 11 seed Marquette defeating the No. 6 seeded Xavier squad 66-55, No. 11 Gonzaga rocking the No. 6 seed St. Johns 86-71 and the No. 11 VCU Rams beating the No. 6 seed Georgetown Hoyas by a final score of 74-56.

SECOND ROUND UPSETS: In the second round, the VCU Rams picked up right where they left off, continuing their upsetting ways. The Rams rolled into the Sweet 16 by destroying the Purdue Boilermakers 94-76.

In other news, the No. 10 seed Florida State Seminoles decided to beat up on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, stunning the No. 2 seed 71-57. In the East, the No. 11 seed Marquette Golden Eagles shocked the world by converting on a late three-pointer and taking down the Syracuse Orange 66-62.

The No. 8 Butler Bulldogs put their game together in the second round and prevailed over the tough No. 1 seed Pittsburgh Panthers in another close matchup, winning by a final of 71-70.

THIRD ROUND UPSETS: The No. 5 seed Arizona Wildcats narrowly defeated the No. 4 seed Texas Longhorns in Round Two 70-69. In the third round, they overpowered the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils, forcing their way into the Elite 8. Then they finally fell to the higher-ranked No. 3 UConn Huskies, who advanced to the Final Four.

The No. 4 seed Kentucky Wildcats' Brandon Knight did it again in Round Three. He knocked down his second winner of the postseason—a 15-footer with five seconds left—to lift the Wildcats to a 62-60 victory over the No. 1 seed Ohio State Buckeyes.

FOURTH ROUND UPSETS: Unlike the Arizona Wildcats, but reminiscent of the UConn Huskies, the Kentucky Wildcats were not eliminated in the Elite 8. Kentucky continued to play great basketball. They upset No. 2 seed North Carolina Tar Heels 76-69 to join the UConn Huskies, Butler Bulldogs and the VCU Rams in the Final Four.

The No. 8 Bulldogs advanced by defeating the No. 2 seed Florida Gators 74-71.

VCU socked it to the last No. 1 seed in the tourney, Kansas, 71-61 to also press forward.

PREDICTIONS THAT CAME TRUE: Butler will remain on fire and take down the ferocious VCU Rams in the Final Four. Regardless of the true outcome of this game, whoever wins the Kentucky/UConn Final Four matchup will win the National Championship. This game promises to be a great, down-to-the-wire finish. But, in the end, UConn will tame the Wildcats and advance to—and win—the National Championship.

Must Read: March Madness 2011: NCAA Tournament Dates, Printable Bracket & Upsets

Must Read: March Madness 2011: Richmond Spiders Handle Highflyer Morehead State Eagles

Well, the Final Four is set: Butler vs. VCU and Kentucky vs. UCONN.

It isn't your typical Final Four, but it definitely is why everybody calls it March Madness.

Two cinderellas playing each other against two of college basketballs most storied teams.

Many believed VCU shouldn't have been in the tournament, Butler is proving again why they are so tough to beat in March, UCONN continues to ride the momentum of the postseason and Kemba Walker, and Kentucky is playing some of the most inspired basketball that they have played all year.

So, which game should be more interesting to watch?

Well on paper, you have a No. 8 seed vs. No. 11 seed, and a No. 3 seed vs. No. 4 seed. Clearly, people would naturally be more interested in the game with the higher seeded teams (Kentucky vs. UCONN).

However, Butler-VCU should and will be the more hyped up game and here's why.

For some reason, during March Madness, people seem to fall in love with the underdog. It was Butler a year ago, and now it's VCU and Butler. Unfortunately, the clock will strike midnight for one of these cinderella teams this Saturday, but nonetheless one will move on to the National Championship, one win away.

Now, we ask ourselves the question, why not wait until the National Championship to watch the conclusion of this cinderella story? The excitement that both teams have brought onto the national spotlight of College Basketball.

The Butler Bulldogs, led by Brad Stevens, who many believe to not get back here this year because of the loss of Gordon Heyward and the fact that they just weren't the same as they were last year.

However, with the return of stars Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard, the Bulldogs have quickly erased doubts of many by knocking off opponent after opponent. It seems as though they have the determination and desire to take care of unfinished business from last year.

Stevens has done a great job of preparing his team for late game situations as all four of their games have come down to the final minute, with his leaders stepping up when it counts.

Everyone knows that a team needs a little good fortune to get as far as they have and the Pittsburgh game definitely was one of good fortune.

After committing a questionable foul with a few seconds remaining, Pitt missed the front end of the 1-and-1, Howard snatched the rebound, hoisted up a desperation shot and was fouled. He makes one free throw and Butler moves on.

Some called it controversy, a good call and some even called it karma for the foul called right before that. Anyways, Butler is in.

VCU, holy cow wow! That is the phrase many experts have used to describe their immaculate run and burst onto the College Basketball scene.

Shaka Smart, the man in the lead, and many believe to be in the running for Coach of the Year in College Basketball. With his version of "controlled chaos," his Commodores have managed to scurry off five consecutive victories in the tournament. Many experts believed that VCU didn't belong in, some didn't even have the winning their opening round game against USC just to get into the field of 64.

They have quickly silenced the doubters, and have done so in convincing fashion.

Four out of the five games, VCU has won in double digits with thrashing victories over USC, Georgetown and Purdue. Turns out their closest game was against No. 10 seed Florida State in the Sweet Sixteen, where that game went to overtime.

The game against Kansas, where many believed that VCU's magic would probably run, they still managed to dominate the majority of the game over a team many believe to be one of the most dominating teams in the country.

The barrage of three pointers that have catapulted VCU to their victories and it's made many teams at a loss for words as for why their shots keep dropping. Add that to one of the most electrifying guards of the tournament in Joey Rodriguez and you have a recipe for success.

Shaka Smart has this team playing with the confidence every underdog needs come March, and is proving to all the critics that his team belongs with the nation's elite.

America will be watching Saturday. Which cinderella team does the clock strike midnight and which keeps on rolling it's way towards a National Championship?

The story is all too cliché.

The small-town team with an inexperienced head coach enters a tournament with low expectations. As they move through the tournament, their confidence starts to grow.

Next, the team proves all of their doubters wrong as they gain a huge following, reaching the championship game. They arrive to play none other than their polar opposite: the most glorified program in the country with the nation's most esteemed coach.

The story goes that the small town team fights hard through the game, but in the end, talent wins out. The team goes back to their town as heroes, still happy with their performance, and prove that winning isn't exactly everything.

But, for head coach Brad Stevens and his Butler Bulldogs, there's a twist.

The story replayed itself the very next year.

In 2000, Brad Stevens was 23, working at Eli Lilly and Company's marketing department in Indianapolis. He had just graduated from DePauw University, majoring in Economics.

While Stevens was living in the Indianapolis area, Butler University reached out to Stevens, offering him a volunteer opportunity with the Bulldogs' basketball program.

After quitting his day-job at Eli Lilly and Company, Stevens rose through the ranks at Butler, earning a full-time assistant coaching position under Todd Lickliter in 2001. Then, in April of 2007, Brad Stevens was named Butler's head coach after Lickliter resigned to take a job coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes.

In his first season, at just 30 years old, Stevens led Butler to a 30-win season. After the year, Butler signed Stevens to a seven-year extension.

After losing four starters heading into the 2008-2009 season, Butler battled to a 26-6 record, adding to Stevens' reputation as the hottest and best young coach in the NCAA.

Then, a season later the Bulldogs captivated the nation, going 28-4 in the regular season and earning a No. 5 seed in the 2009-2010 NCAA Tournament. They ran through tournament, eventually meeting up with big, bad Duke in the finals.

Stevens was brilliant in the tourney run, making halftime adjustments to beat UTEP in the first round and Murray State in the second.

In one of the greatest games in college basketball history, Butler was unfazed. Led by Brad Stevens' calm demeanor, Butler battled all the way to the end of the game, only to lose to Mike Krzyzewski's squad by two.

The nation held their collective breath as Gordon Hayward's half-court heave bounced off the backboard, hit the rim and fell to the floor, like the hearts of millions who had joined Butler's bandwagon during their run to the championship game.

One might have safely assumed that Brad Stevens' Cinderella story would end there.

But it didn't.

After superstar Gordon Hayward left for the NBA, Butler's doubters were plentiful, and they only grew after the team started Horizon League play with a 6-5 record.

But, as only the great coaches do, a now 34-year-old Stevens led his team to rally with nine straight victories to take the Horizon League Championship and earn an automatic bid to the 2010-2011 NCAA Tournament.

As the eighth seed in the Southeast region, Butler battled to a buzzer-beating victory over Old Dominion. They next faced a talented Pittsburgh team, beating them with a frenzy of controversial calls in the final seconds of the game.

Bo Ryan's Wisconsin Badgers came next. After beating them by seven to reach their second consecutive Elite Eight, Stevens and his team had the most tournament experience of any of the eight teams still alive.

And that experience was key in Butler's three-point overtime victory over Florida.

With that win, Brad Stevens has entered a select group of college hoops coaches who have led their teams to back-to-back Final Fours. But this time, Stevens doesn't want to just reach the Final Four.

He wants to win the NCAA Championship.

In the post-game press conference, Stevens constantly emphasized the fact that he was proud of his team for "staying the course."

For Brad Stevens, giving up his job to volunteer for a mid-major basketball program was just another part of "staying the course." And Butler University is all too happy they embarked on the course Stevens presented, as they are set to play in their second consecutive Final Four.

Are you ready for a short quiz of sorts? Here you go.

If you don't like Butler basketball, you don't like:

A. College basketball.

B. Sports and competition in general.

C. Any underdog, in sports or in life.

D. The movie Hoosiers.

E. Having your brackets decimated once again by this little school from Indianapolis.

Yes, "all of the above" would be an acceptable answer, as would "Mom's apple pie."

If you're reading this piece, you know what happened yesterday in New Orleans. Butler scratched, clawed and willed its way to a 74-71 overtime win over the favored two-seed Florida Gators.

Was it a beautiful performance? I guess that depends on your definition of beauty.

Do you enjoy in-your-face defense against bigger, stronger, more-celebrated rivals?

Do you relish watching guys boxing out, setting picks and diving for loose balls?

Do you like heady, tough-as-nails point guards (I'm looking at you, Shelvin Mack) who keep bringing it at both ends of the court despite playing on a gimpy left ankle (he rolled it in the first half) and with a bloodied, bandaged forehead (he couldn't remember what happened)?

If you like all these elements, then Butler is the Mona Lisa of college hoops, enigmatic smile and all.

With its victory over Florida, the appropriately-named "Bulldogs" were the first team to qualify for this year's Final Four. They were later joined by Connecticut, who squeaked out a two-point victory over Arizona. 

Butler will next play the Kansas-VCU winner, while UConn awaits the victor of the battle between North Carolina and Kentucky.  Unless VCU somehow pulls another stunner today, Butler will again be the underdogs and darlings of most neutral observers when Final Four play commences in Houston.

Yesterday's Elite Eight victory may have been Butler's greatest escape yet, especially since Butler had a lot of reasons to lose the game yesterday.

Florida outshot them from the field, 44 percent to 40.

The Gators made 18-22 from the charity stripe; Butler was a mediocre 17 for 27.

Florida only turned the ball over seven times; Butler coughed it up 10 times.

Butler only converted nine out of 33 shots from behind the arc.

The Bulldogs, clear underdogs and not having a great day, had every reason to pack it in against a team with three big, talented seniors on its frontline and a coach, Billy Donovan, who had been to the very peak of the mountain in 2006 and 2007.

But Brad Stevens and his players did not go down without a fight; a dog fight, if you will. A nine-point deficit with seven minutes to play against a very tough team was not enough for Butler to lose its iron will.

On this day, it did not matter that senior forward Matt Howard, who had provided the last-second heroics in the first two rounds versus Old Dominion and Pitt, did not have his best day (14 points and five rebounds in 40 gritty minutes).

It did not even seem to matter that Florida's 6'10", 245-pound forward Vernon Macklin was having a career day, gashing Butler for 27 points on 11-14 shooting.

Somehow, some way, Butler found a way to out-rebound Florida 36-33. Not a huge margin, but on paper, the Gators—with players such as Alex Tyus, who had 30 rebounds in his two previous games and 10 more yesterday—should have owned the glass.

Butler won because a little-known senior guard named Zach Hahn, who had only scored three total points in his previous three games, made two huge treys in the first half.

They won because guard Ronald Nored, although 0-4 from the field, played airtight defense on Florida's high-scoring Erving Walker, limiting him to eight points on 1-10 shooting.

The Bulldogs prevailed due to the efforts of six-foot senior guard Shawn Vanzant, who did all the little things, including knifing in between the trees for seven rebounds.

Then there was freshman forward Khyle Marshall, who had 10 points (including a monster three-point play in overtime) and seven rebounds in 21 electric minutes.

All of the individual contributions, all of the dedication to team basketball and all of the belief in a 34-year-old wizard of a head coach somehow put tiny Butler over the top in a game that they probably had no business winning.

Correction: I don't know exactly what that last cliché means.

Perhaps no other school in the country facing all of Butler's challenges would have prevailed yesterday. But Butler found a way to win because they are in the business of winning close, high-pressure basketball games, no matter what it takes.

And like them or not (are there still any holdouts?), I find it hard to imagine that anyone who loves sports would not admire the heck out of this team.

Whether or not they like bulldogs, or even the Mona Lisa.

For more information on Matt Goldberg's new books, other writings and public appearances, please email matt@tipofthegoldberg.com or contact him via his Bleacher Report homepage.

Move over Gonzaga, there is a new dog that is best in show—and its name is Butler.

The Butler Bulldogs grinded out a 74-71 overtime victory Saturday in New Orleans to punch their ticket back to the Final Four. Last year, Butler went all the way to the National Championship Game and was a miracle shot away from winning the title.

Gonzaga certainly has made their presence known throughout the years by making it to 13 straight NCAA Tournaments and constantly giving ranked teams from power conferences all it could handle. However, those Bulldogs have never made the Final Four and have made the Elite Eight only once since 1999.

Butler may not have Gonzaga’s longevity, but it has made good use of its five consecutive trips to the tournament.

In 2007, Butler made it to the Sweet 16 after beating Old Dominion and Maryland, before losing to Florida. After that season, then-coach Todd Lickliter decided to take the Iowa job and the school decided to take a shot from within. Butler’s choice was a young, 30-year-old assistant named Brad Stevens.

After not getting past the first weekend of the tournament in 2008 and 2009, Stevens guided his team to the improbable title run in 2010.

This year’s Butler team opened up the season ranked No. 18, but struggled without Gordon Hayward and sat at 14-9 on Feb. 3. However, the Bulldogs stormed back to win its final seven regular season games and the Horizon League tournament en route to an No. 8 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Strong leadership by senior Matt Howard and junior Shelvin Mack allowed Butler to win close in all four of its tournament games for its return trip to the Final Four and a shot unfinished business from last year.

Even without a title, Butler’s run this year is even more impressive than last year and it has put itself as the top mid-major program out there, and I believe Stevens is committed to make sure his Bulldogs stay there with his youthful wisdom leading the way.

To be honest, I do not think this program will be going away anytime soon and it will take a lot for the next mid-major to surpass them.

Move over Gonzaga, there is a new dog that is best in show—and its name is Butler.

The Butler Bulldogs grinded out a 74-71 overtime victory Saturday in New Orleans to punch their ticket back to the Final Four. Last year, Butler went all the way to the National Championship Game and was a miracle shot away from winning the title.

Gonzaga certainly has made their presence known throughout the years by making it to 13 straight NCAA Tournaments and constantly giving ranked teams from power conferences all it could handle. However, those Bulldogs have never made the Final Four and have made the Elite Eight only once since 1999.

Butler may not have Gonzaga’s longevity, but it has made good use of its five consecutive trips to the tournament.

In 2007, Butler made it to the Sweet 16 after beating Old Dominion and Maryland, before losing to Florida. After that season, then-coach Todd Lickliter decided to take the Iowa job and the school decided to take a shot from within. Butler’s choice was a young, 30-year-old assistant named Brad Stevens.

After not getting past the first weekend of the tournament in 2008 and 2009, Stevens guided his team to the improbable title run in 2010.

This year’s Butler team opened up the season ranked No. 18, but struggled without Gordon Hayward and sat at 14-9 on Feb. 3. However, the Bulldogs stormed back to win its final seven regular season games and the Horizon League tournament en route to an No. 8 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Strong leadership by senior Matt Howard and junior Shelvin Mack allowed Butler to win close in all four of its tournament games for its return trip to the Final Four and a shot unfinished business from last year.

Even without a title, Butler’s run this year is even more impressive than last year and it has put itself as the top mid-major program out there, and I believe Stevens is committed to make sure his Bulldogs stay there with his youthful wisdom leading the way.

To be honest, I do not think this program will be going away anytime soon and it will take a lot for the next mid-major to surpass them.

In one of my brackets, which has deservedly been destroyed by the Madness, I picked Old Dominion to defeat the Butler Bulldogs in the first round. After their first round game officially began, I asked myself "Why?"

It was an obvious question without a sane answer. Naively, I didn’t think they would do it again, but they did. Behind the 27 points from senior guard Shelvin Mack, the Bulldogs are going to the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four for the second straight season.

Entering the tournament in 2010, Butler was an unknown. They were just the champions of a league few had much knowledge of, with players that needed to be researched. So it came to a surprise that as a fifth-seed, they upset UTEP by 18, snuck by 13-seed Murray State, similarly squeaked past top-seeded Syracuse, defeated Michigan State to reach the championship game against Duke and only lost by two to the Blue Devils after the half-court heave from star Gordon Hayward found an unkind rim. They were a sensation.

After their win over UTEP, the state of Indiana was buzzing. By the end, the whole country was. Hayward’s performance on the biggest of stages transformed him into a first-round pick, Stevens got a raise, and Mack, Matt Howard, Shawn Vansant, and Ronald Nored put their names on the map.

The Bulldogs, with an experienced roster and Brad Stevens, a genius 34-year-old coach who looks like he’s younger than some of his players, were not to be bet against. They beat ODU, then came the exhilarating defeat of number-one seeded Pittsburgh followed by their take-down of Wisconsin. An Elite Eight matchup was set with the second-seeded Florida Gators. Of course they would prevail, doing so in exciting overtime fashion.

In late January and into early February, Butler lost three straight games, two coming in overtime and the other a two-point regulation loss. That stretch put them at eight losses for the season with nine games remaining. During the 2009-2010 season, Butler lost a grand total of five games, none of which coming in their Horizon League. This magical regular season could not be duplicated, and the regression was in part due to losing Hayward to the NBA.

The Bulldogs weren’t about to fold. Behind the brilliant coaching of Stevens and the increasingly solid play of Mack and Howard, they won their final nine games. That did not give them the outright conference title, as Cleveland State—which is also known for pulling off upsets in dramatic fashion—tied them with a record of 13-5 and 27-9 overall. Despite the tie, it was Bulter that would make the NCAA Tournament. Named the eighth seed, they stared at the same uphill climb they did in 2010, with remarkably the same results thus far.

Their win over second-seeded Florida wasn’t pretty. None of their wins have been, but they somehow find a way, scratching and clawing with intensified defense and clutch shooting by their now household names. With nine and a half minutes left against the Gators, they trailed by 11, 51-40. Their play during the remainder of regulation showed just how talented this team is and was yet another reminder of how horribly wrong I was to pick against them.

Suddenly, they entered another gear. All superior teams have the tendency to do this to say it’s time to make our move. Butler flipped a switch, starting to force turnovers and capitalize off them. And when Florida did score, they had an answer. Over the first seven minutes of their run, the Gators 11-point lead had evaporated, culminating with Mack hitting two jumpers to notch a 57-all tie. Florida was held to just three points over the final two-plus minutes of the second half, and overtime was forced.

This was Butler basketball at its finest, setting up the back-and-forth finish. Mack scored their final five points in overtime, and as Erving Walker’s three-pointer and Kenny Boynton’s heave missed, the guard was celebrating once again with his teammates. They received their Final Four t-shirts and hats as before, just with a new design and a new year, and each player climbed atop the ladder, scissors in hand, and snipped a piece of the net in celebration.

The cutting of the nets is something that’s also done at the end by the winner of the National Championship. To build upon last season, that’s all Butler has to do. And Hayward, all smiles watching their defeat of Florida from the Utah Jazz locker room, is excited to see if his former teammates can in fact collect two more wins and be atop the college basketball world.

“At the beginning of the season, I knew they had potential. They went through those struggles, and I think everyone thought, ‘Hey, what’s going on? You guys need to get together,’” Hayward said to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. “I talked to some of those guys and they’ve come together. They’ve got the players and anything can happen.”

Anything has so far, and the Bulldogs hope this time everything does.

(Photo: Daylife)

March Madness 2011 has provided plenty of surprises, none bigger than a second-straight Final Four appearance by the Butler Bulldogs.

Its time to throw the "mid-major" or "Cinderella" label out of the picture. Butler is quickly becoming a basketball powerhouse due to the work of one man.

Brad Stevens, the current head coach at Butler, is showing the foundation of how a program needs to be built.

After beginning his career as an assistant, he took over the Butler program at a young age. Though he is only 34 years old, Stevens has proved to be the best coach in college basketball.

Whether you question my intelligence of basketball or my sanity for that matter, the success Stevens has found the past two years at Butler has convinced me otherwise.

Brad Stevens does not have the amount of resources the major powerhouses in college basketball have. This all begins with recruiting.

Butler is at a disadvantage from the standpoint of recruiting because of the lower-tier conference they play in. The typical talented college athlete wants immediate exposure to a program in a top conference and wants the quickest path to the NBA.

We need to credit both Stevens and his scouting department for finding some great, unknown talent. Whether it was Gordon Hayward (first-round selection of the Jazz), Shelvin Mack or Matt Howard, Stevens gets the best out of his players each and every night.

The last few years Butler has taken their talents to the Big Dance. However, success in the tournament was not easy, as Butler had won one game in their first two stints under Stevens in the tournament.

The 2009-2010 season was different though, as Butler capped off a magical run all the way to the National Championship.

This winning streak included wins over two prestigious head coaches (Jim Boeheim and Tom Izzo) which resulted with a berth in the National Championship game.

The young Butler squad held their own in the game against an experienced Duke Blue Devils team. Though they just came up short, everybody in the nation came away impressed with the Bulldogs.

Everyone was going to wait another season to see if the success could be repeated. After all, the typical Cinderella team has their magical run and then settles back to being a mid-major.

Butler is a different story. The season began on a surprising note, with the team not firing on all cylinders early on.

The team finished with a 13-5 record in the Horizon and won the conference championship. Despite their success, they were 1-3 against tournament teams this year and seemed poised for a short stint in the tournament.

Try telling that to Stevens and his scrappy squad. The defensive performances of Butler have been astonishing throughout the tournament.

The offensive numbers haven't been the most eye-catching, but when it mattered most, both Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard made the clutch shots that were needed.

For two straight years Butler knocked off a No. 1 seed from the Big East conference. This year's victim was Pittsburgh, who supposedly had the easiest run to Houston.

Pittsburgh's defeat had its share of controversy, which in the end didn't matter to Brad Stevens. He knew his team knocked out the most talented team in the bracket and increased the team's chances of returning to the Final Four.

The momentum carried them to a convincing win over Wisconsin. Butler took control of the game early and never looked back. Stevens' game-plan is similar to Bo Ryan's, yet he utilized enough offensive possessions to put the game away early in the second half.

Butler's win over the Florida Gators might have been a result of another great performance by Mack. In the end, Brad Stevens' team was more battle-tested than Billy Donovan's squad. The Gators dominated on the offensive glass early in the first half, but only led the Bulldogs by one at the end of the first half.

After extending a lead to double digits in the second half, the patience of the Bulldogs allowed them to force the game into overtime, where they eventually won.

Butler has reached the Final Four for two seasons in a row, which didn't seem imaginable for a school in Indiana not named Purdue or Notre Dame.

The beautiful part of the story is they can no longer be considered the underdog. There is no team in the nation wishing to play a team coached by Brad Stevens.

Their defensive style allows them to compete with any team in the country, and the experience of playing in this environment will be in their favor.

The job Brad Stevens has done with Butler is better than any other program in the country and has made his mark as the nation's best coach by turning a mid-major into a program on the rise.

I will leave you tonight with this quote by ESPN columnist Pat Forde: "How good was Stevens' coaching job this year? I covered opener at Louisville, and Butler looked sub-NIT. By March, Final Four-bound."

I am a Featured Columnist for BleacherReport.com. Follow me at twitter.com/MattMiselis

Last summer was considered to be the biggest free agent class in the history of the NBA, but in the midst of all that it was a coach who arguably had the biggest impact of any signing. 

This year is generally regarded as a weaker year in terms of draft prospects. Could the next "Tom Thibodeau" bear playing his wares in the college ranks right now and could he bring that to the NBA?

Brad Stevens has brought Butler back to the Final Four for the second year in a row. He did it the hard way, beating the first, third and second seeds to get to there. He's now an overall 9-1 in tournament play, and the one loss came against Mike Kryzewski, and he barely lost that one.

In short, Stevens is an amazing young talent at the coaching level. He has smaller, less skilled players and a whole heck of a lot less money. He's at a disadvantage at virtually every aspect of the NCAA game except for one area: the grey matter between his ears. 

There are those who argue that basketball is not about the numbers or the stats—a bit of a strawman argument. The real argument is that  the stats are about basketball, or more succinctly which stats are really about basketball.

Advanced stats is a more modern look at basketball, the "sabermetric that's understood is" of basketball if you will. On the internet level and stat geek level it's understood in terms of points per 100 possessions instead of points scored—Win Shares or PER.

It's looking at what happens in the game to determine how teams are successful and the true "value" of different players. 

On the coaching level it's taking that information and other information and converting it into making teams successful. It's a completely different level of synthesis, and it's what makes Stevens so successful. In layman's terms, he's the "Neo" of coaching. He's watching the game as data, but he understands how to convert that data into winning.

He literally knows what the other team is going to do before they do it, or more accurately what they are probably going to do before they do it. He studies things like which foot a player leads with when he dribbles, which way he breaks to the basket, how he responds to different types of defenses and double teams. 

By learning those behaviors he can coach his players to do the things which force the other team's players into behaviors that make them less effective and offset the natural advantages they have.  

The question is does being able to coach in that manner translate to the next level? Will players respond to coaching that says, "this player stops with the ball in his left hand 83 percent of the time and goes right 67 percent of the time."

Are NBA players going to "do what they're told?" particularly by a 33-year-old kid who never played an NBA game and whose success at the college level was an Academic All-American? Is a coach so mild-mannered that he makes Clark Kent look like an emotional roller-coaster going to manage the egos and drama of an NBA locker room? Perhaps with the right assistants he could do it.

It was interesting that Carlos Boozer said in an interview recently that Tom Thibodeau was doing the walk-throughs with the team on his first day of the Bulls training camp rather than having his assistants do it for him. He said he'd never seen that with any of the teams he played for and that by doing so, Thibs had the respect of the entire team from the first day.

Brad Stevens seems to have the similar sort of work ethic that Thibodeau has, and that could compensate partly for some of the other shortcomings.

Are there any NBA teams that would be open to Steven's approach? Certainly there would need to be a team that already accepts the idea of advanced analytics. There are a few teams that have advanced analytics departments, and who may be coach shopping in the summer. 

Teams that have departments at all include Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indiana, Los Angeles Lakes, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, Toronto and Washington. 

Of those teams, most aren't likely to be looking for coaches. There are a couple that either will or might be hiring a new coach next year, the Lakers and the Heat. I don't see Kobe Bryant being coached by a guy younger than him, not when he butted heads with Phil Jackson. I certainly don't see LeBron doing it either. 

It's possible that if Orlando goes out in the second round this year Stan Van Gundy might be on his way out, but he's a bit of a advanced stat kind of guy too, so it's doubtful they would replace Van Gundy with a similar coach. Plus they aren't going to risk losing Howard by taking a risk on a coach.  

The other teams that are successful (above .500)  aren't looking to replace the man they have. Teams that have first year coaches aren't going to be looking to  replace them, even if they're losing. It seems to me that Toronto, Washington, Milwaukee and Indiana are real possibilities.

Of those Indiana is the most obvious choice.

They have good but not great players. Then there's the hometown connection. In terms of the players egos, Tyler Hansborough, the most likely player to emerge as a star, is a hard worker who would probably embrace a coach like Stevens.

Could Brad Stevens lead the Pacers to be next year's most improved team? It would be interesting to see. If he were it would certainly have an impact on how NBA teams approach the game moving  forward.