Butler Basketball

Each year after the NCAA tournament, Butler's Brad Stevens is an obvious candidate to move to a bigger school after a review of his extensive list of accomplishments with the Bulldogs.

However, Stevens' loyalty to Butler has passed yet another test.

That's the latest from ESPN.com, which is reporting that Stevens will remain with the Bulldogs for the 2013-14 season and beyond. A source close to Stevens and Butler has confirmed the head coach will not be leaving for another job this summer.

Stevens signed a 12-year contract extension following Butler's magical run to the national championship game in 2010 (via ESPN) and then proceeded to take the squad back to the game again in 2011.

The Bulldogs haven't had the same success as those first two trips that officially put Butler and Stevens on the map, but Butler made the tournament for the fifth time in his six seasons as head coach in 2013 and continue to exude success.

Butler is also moving into the new Big East next season, joining the Catholic 7, Xavier and Creighton.

UCLA had emerged as a candidate to pursue Stevens on Thursday (via ESPN), just a few days after firing head coach Ben Howland following the team's second-round loss to Minnesota.

Like the major college programs that have pursued Stevens since 2010, the Bruins will also come up empty.

Stevens has a 166-49 career record as the head coach at Butler, highlighted by his two runs to the Final Four in 2010 and 2011. He also holds a 84-22 conference record as a member of both the Horizon League from 2007-2012 and this year in the Atlantic 10—the team's first as a member.

In cryptic fashion, Stevens foreshadowed his decision to stay with this tweet on Friday morning:

Stevens will have to work overtime again next year to replace seniors Rotnei Clarke and Andrew Smith, but after putting Butler on the map in 2010 and continuing the program's success enough for a move to a major conference, the sky is the limit for what Butler can accomplish the next few seasons.

His heart clearly lies with the Bulldogs, as yet another college program has tried—and failed—to lure him away.

Andrew Smith stands at the line Saturday as Butler faces Marquette in the third round of the NCAA tournament. He is 6'11", a big man who has played in a pair of National Championship games.  There are just over three minutes left on the clock, the game tied. The pressure must weigh on him as he steps to the free-throw line, but there is no sign of nervousness on his face.

Smith steps to the line and looks down, setting his toe just behind the paint. He takes the ball from the referee and looks up, focusing his gaze on the rim. Without looking down, he dribbles the ball three times. He pauses, just enough to take a breath, and exhales as he releases the shot.

Nothing but net.

The referee passes the ball to him for the second shot and once again he sets his foot, dribbles three times, breathes and ...

We feel the pressure in our homes, sitting on the edge of the couch, remote in hand. Few of us understand the pressure that Andrew Smith or any college basketball player feels in a situation like this, but most of us feel like we have an idea. That tightness in the pit of our stomachs and a feel of sweat on our palms, disconnected as we are, makes us feel closer to the team we root for.

On the line, it is different. "It comes down to three things," Dr. Chris Carr tells me, "Concentration, composure, and confidence."

Carr makes it sound easy, or at least simple, but that's his job. Carr is the Coordinator of Sport & Performance Psychology at St. Vincent's Sports Performance in Indianapolis. His work with teams like Indiana University and several Olympic teams have led to championships and gold medals. But for free throws, it is simple.

"Shooting a free throw is a closed-field skill. There's a defined task and the athlete can define their own approach to it," Carr explained. "There's very little external issues in a free throw, but controlling the internal issues is hard enough."

NCAA players on the whole shoot free throws at about a 69 percent clip, a range that has been constant since the mid-1960s. In fact, according to the New York Times, the overall rate has never exceeded hitting 7-of-10 from the "charity stripe."

Butler's guru

Darnell Archey hit a lot more than 7-of-10. During his four-year career at Butler, Archey achieved astonishing accuracy marks, shooting 97 percent on free throws in 2003 and 95.1 percent for his career. He also hit 85 free throws in a row, an NCAA record and one of the 10 "untouchable" records as listed by Yahoo Sports. The streak lasted almost a full calendar year.

"He's a guy addicted to touching a basketball," said then assistant coach Brad Stevens, who is now Archey's boss at Butler. Archey returned to Butler after a brief stint in Europe and now works as Coordinator of Basketball Operations for the school. Stevens told David Woods of the Indianapolis Star at the time of the record that Archey had gone as far as taking home an unfamiliar brand of basketball and sleeping with it to get the feel.

Archey told Woods that he had a simple pattern for shooting. "Archey dribbles three times, takes a deep breath, bends his knees and follows through. When he shoots, he's thinking about all the free throws taken in the backyard or in an empty gym," Woods explained. Sound familiar?

Sounds like Smith's approach:

With just over a minute left in Saturday's game. Smith is back on the line. Time ticking away  only increases the pressure he must feel, but it does not show. Smith never looks at the score or the clock. He only steps to the line and begins his routine.

The fans from both sides see the score—tied—and the time left—under a minute. Smith only sees the referee, the ball coming to his hands then the small space behind the front rim, where he wants to ball to be in just seconds.

His foot sets, three dribbles and the ball is just where he looked. His second shot is exactly the same, the screams of the opposing fans going silent as it hits the net. 

Making It Routine

Some routines look ridiculous. They are over-complex and require multiple steps. Combinations of dribbling, hand movements, ball spins and knee bends can go on seemingly forever. There is, however, great power in a routine. 

"A routine gets a player to an optimal focus," Dr. Carr explained. "It should be a maneuver that connects him and disconnects him at the same time."

Carr uses a scene from the movie For The Love Of The Game in presentations. Kevin Costner's character stands on the mound, hearing everything from jeers to music to—is that a Vuvuzela in a movie from 1999? 

The phrase works and a routine can be much the same, Carr says. "It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it gets the player to the right place. It takes him from this situation to the one where he is in control, where he has practiced it countless times, to where he is in control."

The best players all have them. 

Buckeye's Bad Moments

Aaron Craft is an exceptional shooter. His 79 percent free-throw shooting is solid and teams avoid fouling him late. As his Ohio State team fights with Iowa State on Sunday in another third-round NCAA game, Craft finds himself at the line. Instead of following his normal routine, Craft seems distracted. He says something to a teammate as he takes the ball. He fumbles a bit, then puts the ball on his hip as he finishes whatever it was he was saying. 

He dribbles once and turns to the Ohio State bench. He dribbles again, once, twice, then pauses with his knees bent, as if for just a moment, he forgot what he was there for. It was as if he was frozen at the line. That hesitation shows as the ball goes up and hits the front iron, wasting the one-and-one opportunity. 

Craft normally has a much different routine, but the pressure got to even a player of his caliber. He was distracted, perhaps a bit fatigued, and while he redeemed himself with his game-winning shot, if he'd performed better on his free throws—he missed 4-of-11—he might not have needed to be such a hero.

Focused, Not "Clutch"

Butler plays in Hinkle Fieldhouse, where the famous scene from Hoosiers took place. Gene Hackman as coach Norman Dale walks in and measures the goal. "10 feet," a player announces, same as in Hickory. However, Dr. Carr might counsel coach Dale that while the basket might be the same height, one gym is not necessarily another. Environment, conditioning and distraction are far more important than any perceived skill of "clutch."

There really is no such thing as "pressure" or "clutch." The truth is that it is the response to the external stimuli that makes it one or the other, or neither.

"You practice for those situations," Dr. Carr said. He gets his teams and players to simulate conditions with unpredictable sound, by taking shots in a fatigued state and by repeating things in multiple environments.

"Clutch isn't a performance or psychological attribute," Carr tells me. "It's consistency and confidence. It's being able to do what was practiced because you practiced the skill in the right ways. Choke is the opposite. But choke and distraction are two sides of the same coin."

Fans seem to think they can alter the course of a game by waving signs, screaming at the top of their lungs and any number of other novel distractions that will come and go. Carr thinks there's something to it, though the top-level players do not respond to any kind of distraction.

"Most respond to an audiovisual cue, especially if it is novel, something the player is unprepared for," Carr said. "The biggest issue that I see has nothing to do with the fans and is more about preparation. I see a lot of teams that don't structure their walkthroughs properly and that leaves the player in a situation where everything is novel, where they haven't been in this spot and can find their center easily."

Back to Saturday's Butler game: Andrew Smith doesn't have a routine for last-second threes. He ended up with the ball in his hands, tossing up a desperation shot as he fell to the ground, his Bulldogs falling to Marquette. As the buzzer sounded, he gave himself a moment of disappointment, a slight frown and then he walked over to his bench. 

Smith's Butler career is over, one of the best that any player at this storied basketball school has ever had. He may never face a situation like those on the free-throw line again in his life, but there's bound to be pressure. 

Smith will breathe, find his footing, and succeed again.

All quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

Will Carroll has been writing about sports injuries for 12 years. His work has appeared at SI.com, ESPN.com and Basketball Prospectus.

The Butler Bulldogs are ready to make yet another deep run in the NCAA tourney this season, and they certainly have the talent to do so.

Despite all of the success from such a small program, it still has to sting to lose in the National Championship Game twice in back-to-back seasons.  The program failed to make it back to the Big Dance in 2012, but the Bulldogs are back to make yet another championship run.

The resume for the Bulldogs has been impressive despite switching from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10 Conference.  They went 26-8 overall with a record of 11-5 in the A-10 and had big wins against Indiana, North Carolina and Gonzaga on the season.

This team may not have Gordon Hayward, but there is plenty of talent on the Bulldogs’ roster.

Rotnei Clarke has been spectacular.  The transfer student from Arkansas has become the star player for the Bulldogs, and his play proves it.  He’s averaged 16.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, and he’s also been a dangerous three-point shooter, making 41.2 percent of his shots and an average of 3.5 treys per contest.

Andrew Smith and Roosevelt Jones have been the other big names for the Bulldogs.  Smith has been a great big man for the team, averaging 11.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while shooting 49.6 percent from the floor.  Jones has been spectacular as well, scoring 10.1 points while grabbing 5.7 rebounds and dishing out 3.5 assists per game.

As a team, none of their statistics jump out at you.  Strangely enough, the same thing can be said about the previous teams that made championship runs.  They weren’t spectacular on offense or defense in either season, but they knew how to win.

When you watch them on the court, you see that the Bulldogs play to their opponents’ level.  While that sounds like a bad thing, it really isn’t when they play good teams.  They showed that they can go toe-to-toe with two different teams that have been ranked No. 1 this year in Gonzaga and Indiana.  Brad Stevens does a good job of creating a strategy based on who the team is playing, and he sticks with it. 

No one knows how they do it, but Butler seems to find ways to make deep runs consistently.  With Stevens coaching and all of the talent on this year’s team, there’s even more reason to believe that they can make another big push to the Final Four.

Link to Printable PDF

Link to Live Bracket

Make your picks for the 2013 NCAA Tournament here with the Bracket Challenge Game

When you think of March Madness success, you think Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.

When you think of March Madness wagering success, you think Virginia Commonwealth and Butler.

Making bracket picks is much different than making bracket bets, and it’s usually under-hyped Mid-Major schools that offer the best value, said Jack Randall, a basketball analyst interviewed this morning at OddsShark.com.

“Everybody knows Duke and North Carolina, and they love to bet on them regardless of the point spread, but not everyone knows about these very good teams from smaller conferences that get much less media attention,” said Randall.

“The result is that they sneak up on people and savvy bettors get great line value on them. It’s how Xavier became by far the best betting pick in recent March Madness odds history.”

Indeed, Xavier reeled off the greatest stretch of tournament point spread covers in history. The Musketeers missed out on the Madness this year with a loss in the Atlantic 10 conference, but in 21 recent tournament games, they went 18-2-1 ATS.

Without Xavier, the torch was passed to VCU and Butler as the best betting options (from a historical perspective anyway).

Virginia Commonwealth is 11-1 ATS in its past 12 bracket games. But after years of playing the underdog role, the Rams are favored as the No. 5 seed against Akron. The 5 seed presents additional challenges for VCU as 12 seeds are a perennial threat to the bracket safety of fifth-seeded schools.

Butler is a No. 6 seed in 2013 and has managed to parlay a low seed to consecutive national title games. Along the way, the Bulldogs have run up a 9-1 ATS mark in tournament.

Is Saint Louis the heir apparent to this spread-betting throne? The Billikens hit the tournament on a dominant run against the spread. The fourth seed in the Midwest bracket is 15-1 ATS in its past 16 games overall and 17-3 ATS in 20 games as a favorite.

They have played just five tournament games since 1998, but they are 4-1 ATS. Up next is New Mexico State, losers of six consecutive tournament games dating back to 1993.

First round locks?

Last year, a pair of 15 seeds dumped highly regarded No. 2 schools, proving there are no locks for bracket contestants or Vegas bettors.

But Indiana has been pretty close in the opening round. The Hoosiers boast a 6-1 ATS mark the past seven times they have played in the tournament. They await the winner of the LIU/JMU First Four game.

Check out more March Madness tournament trends below, courtesy of the Odds Shark NCAA basketball database.

Florida 9-3 ATS past 12 tournament games

Davidson 6-2 ATS past 8 Madness games

Gonzaga OVER is 8-2 past 10 tournament games

Indiana 6-1 ATS past 7 first-round games

Louisville 4-0-1 ATS last year in Madness

Memphis OVER is 10-2 past 12 tournament games

Missouri OVER is 12-2-1 past 15 tournament games

Missouri 1-4 ATS past 5 tournament games

Notre Dame UNDER is 8-1-1 past 10 tournament games

UNLV 0-4 SU & ATS in tournament since 2008

Wisconsin 5-1 ATS past 6 first-round games

Valpo is 0-4 SU & ATS since 1999, losing by average 77-53

Arizona 11-4 ATS past 15 tournament games

Minnesota 0-5 SU & ATS since 1997

NC State 6-2 ATS in tournament since 2005

Illinois has alternated ATS wins and losses past 10 games (win is due)

Miami played 7 straight tournament OVERs

Butler and Bucknell both enter the NCAA tournament as fashionable “dark-horse” picks, but only one can advance.

Butler came out of the gates hot and recorded nonconference wins over Marquette, and No. 1 seeds Indiana and Gonzaga. At one point, the Bulldogs reached as high as No. 9 in the polls, but then struggled through the meat of their conference schedule.

The Bulldogs finished the season with a 26-8 overall record and an 11-5 record in conference which was good enough for a tie for third place in their first year in the Atlantic 10.  They are in the tournament via an at-large bid.

Bucknell features one of the best players you have never heard of in Mike Muscala. The senior center averaged 19 points and 11.2 rebounds per game this season to lead the Bison to a 28-5 record.

Bucknell won the Patriot league regular-season title with a 12-2 record and earned the conference’s automatic bid with a 64-56 win of Lafayette in the Patriot League championship game.

Key Injuries

Neither team has any reported injuries.

Where: Lexington, Kentucky at Rupp Arena

When: Thursday, March 21 at 12:40 p.m. ET

Watch: TruTV

Listen: Here is a link to the live streaming audio for Butler. Here is a link to the live streaming audio broadcast for Bucknell.

Betting Line: Butler -3.5 according to Bodog

What's at Stake?

The ability to move on the Round of 32 and face the winner of the Marquette/Davidson game.

What They're Saying

Genaro C. Armas of the Associated Press talks about how Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen tries to model his program after Butler.

Butler, to me, is the gold standard for mid-major programs. So much of what we do, or try to do, is modeled on Butler.

David Woods of the Indianapolis Star writes that, after missing the NCAA tournament last year, Butler is especially excited to dance in 2013.

This is Butler’s sixth tourney appearance in seven years and 11th in 17 years. The Bulldogs were national runners-up in 2010 and 2011 but missed the tournament in 2012.

Stevens said making the field can never be taken for granted. Defending champion Kentucky didn’t make this year’s tournament.

“I don’t care if you’re Butler. I don’t care if you haven’t been in (it in) 30 years,” Stevens said. “I don’t care if you’re Carolina or Duke. It’s not a given. You have to earn it. That’s the fun part about being in that room tonight.”

Most Important Player to Watch: Bucknell Center Mike Muscala

Muscala is one of the best big men in the country. He averages a double-double per game and has had success against strong competition. He had 25 points and 14 rebounds in a January game against then No. 12 Missouri and recorded 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists against fellow tournament team La Salle.



Key Matchup: Cameron Ayers vs. Roosevelt Jones

With Muscala in the low-post, the Bison have received most of their offensive production from the frontcourt. Ayers is a lanky scorer who provides an outside offensive threat. He is second on the team with an average of 12.5 points per game.

Jones is a solid all-around player and is one of the Bulldogs' best defenders. He averages 10.1 points per game, 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists. If Jones can produce offensively and force the Bison to be one-dimensional by shutting down Ayers, Butler will win.

Prediction: Butler 55, Bucknell 51

This is matchup of two of the premier mid-major programs in the country. They are very evenly matched, but, although Butler did not go to the tournament in 2012, the difference will be experience.

Butler coach Brad Stevens simply wins in the tournament and his team has won numerous close games all year. This game will be close until the final minutes, but look for Butler to execute down the stretch and pull out a close victory.

The clock will not strike midnight anytime soon for Cinderellas with hopes of making NCAA tournament runs this year.

Unlike last year, when Kentucky was the clear-cut favorite with only two losses, this year is possibly the widest open it has ever been.

Five teams have earned the honor of holding the No. 1 spot in the AP poll, with the top spots switching in and out on a weekly basis. In fact, Gonzaga is the only school that is undefeated within conference play.

Not only are the top-tier teams a mess, but a much larger than usual number of bubble teams are fighting to get into the dance.

Since the wealth has been distributed among most of the teams this season, local teams such as Temple, Villanova and La Salle not only have a chance to make the tournament, but to make deep runs as well.

On top of the local schools to get excited about, Philadelphia will also play an important role in the tournament by hosting the second and third rounds of the East Regional at the Wells Fargo Center.

With all the chaos within the standings in college basketball this year, there is no doubt that this madness will transfer over to March. Last year was the first time in tournament history that two 15 seeds knocked off two 2 seeds in the same year, with Norfolk State beating Missouri and Lehigh beating Duke.

Could this be the first year that a 16 seed performs the unthinkable and defeats a top-ranked team?

This year’s tournament could take last year's second-round upsets one step further, with potential No. 1 seed Miami having already lost to Florida Gulf Coast and Wake Forest, and Kansas having lost to TCU.

From the perspective of an average fan filling out a bracket, this year is as unpredictable as ever when deciding what teams to pick. Choosing an abundance of upsets may be the most logical strategy, yet this year has also taught us to have no confidence in any single team.

Much of the bracket process is random anyway, with no true strategy leading to consistently successful picks.

Listening to so-called college basketball "experts" will not help in the slightest when trying to win a company pool.

Even though the college basketball regular season is a whole different animal than March Madness, it is still difficult for any team to string a group of wins together.

The difference in atmosphere could also affect the ability of teams to make a tournament run. Since most rounds are played in mainly neutral sites, teams don’t have the advantage of thousands of hyped-up college kids in their support.

For this reason, teams cannot ride home-court advantage like in the regular season, and they must deal with playing games in less college-dominant scenes.

The college basketball world shouldn’t be surprised if a mid-major team gets hot at just the right time this year and disposes of multiple powerhouses. Just ask the mid-major Butler Bulldogs, a small Indiana school that made the finals twice in a row in 2010 and 2011 as 5 and 8 seeds respectively.

There are a number of historically smaller basketball schools to watch as March progresses this time around, with Butler, Gonzaga, Saint Louis and VCU all notably having successful regular seasons.

It is true that March only gets to have the name ‘madness’ added to it for every great upset: from Northern Iowa beating Kansas in 2010 to George Mason beating UConn in 2006.  

The NCAA tournament is great because of these runs from unexpected schools coupled with big-time upsets from otherwise unheard-of schools.

With a combination of zero dominant teams and many hungry Cinderellas, this year’s March Madness is ready to make mayhem in the sports world.  

It's been a historic season for the Butler Bulldogs.

After playing in two straight National Championship games, they've jumped out to a 16-2 start overall and are 3-0 in year one of Atlantic 10 play.

The season has been one for the ages ever since an impressive Roteni Clarke one-handed three-point heave fell as time expired to beat Marquette 72-71 in the first round of the Maui Invitational.

They followed that up by an impressive 82-71 victory over then No. 9 North Carolina.

After that, they managed two huge Big Ten victories. The first at Northwestern, when they were at full strength, followed by a victory of the ages over then top ranked Indiana in overtime. Alex Barlow hit a shot with less than three seconds remaining, propelling the Bulldogs to a victory.

The Bulldogs then went on to win convincingly over the rest of their opponents until Saturday night's nationally televised victory over visiting Gonzaga, where butler showed more magic when Roosevelt Jones hit a one-handed heave in the lane as time expired, giving Butler the 64-63 win.

It was the first time ESPN College Gameday has come to Hinkle Fieldhouse, and the network kept referencing the movie Hoosiers and all the magic and feel of Indiana basketball.

The win has everyone talking in Indianapolis.

Butler may actually be not just the best team in the state, but the entire nation. They've beat three Top 10 teams and have won many of their major games in dramatic fashion. They've had two game-winning shots at the buzzer and one with less than three seconds left.

With that said, Butler must avoid the trap game with LaSalle tomorrow night.

The Explorers aren't a bad team as they sit 12-5 and are 2-2 in conference play. Butler has the rare feat of playing with the target on their back now after being the hunters all season.

LaSalle knows how much talent is in the Atlantic 10 Conference, and a signature win over the hottest team in America would give them that resume-building victory that could help in March.

Butler hasn't lost in over two months and may be looking forward to their home matchup with the Temple Owls on Saturday. Once again, that game will be on ESPN with the sister station ESPN 2 picking up the game.

The Owls are a very good team and play physical. They will give Butler a good game. If they can get by Temple, there's no reason Butler can't win its next eight games going into the big road matchup at VCU on March 2.

The Bulldogs know the importance of beating Temple and staying way ahead of everyone else in the conference.

Butler knows they could earn a one seed in the tournament if they take care of business and would love to play at home in the Indianapolis regional, as the site is Lucas Oil Stadium, just a couple miles from their home court in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

They know what's at stake, and the game with LaSalle is the biggest trap game of the year for them.

If there's any coach that will have his team focused to not overlook the Explorers, it's Brad Stevens.

But, these are 18-22-year-old kids coming off of another thrilling victory on national TV with another one of those games staring at them in the face on Saturday.

If they want one of the top two or three seeds in March, they have to win tomorrow night.

Follow Eric on Twitter @ericsportsguru

Adding yet another addition to the growing Brad Stevens legend, Butler pulled off a magical victory over Gonzaga on Saturday night.

Ho hum. Don't look now, but the are a fresh 16-2 (including three top 10 victories) and ranked No. 9 in the country. 

That's nothing new for the best coach in college basketball.

Yes, you heard me. Brad Stevens is the best coach in NCAA Men's Division I Basketball.

No question.

For starters, let's take a look at his recruits. It's these guys who he has managed to turn into legitimate title contenders, year in and year out.

Over his tenure, Stevens has produced just two 4-star recruits. Count 'em. Khyle Marshall and Kellen Dunham. That's two. 

Duke bypasses 4-star recruits like Tom Brady does a lost penny on the street. For Butler, a 4-star recruit comes around a handful of times per decade.

Some critics would argue this point. Sure, Butler hasn't got the recruits in the past they say, but Stevens is sure reeling in the players now.

But is he?

Let's look at Butler's 2013 recruiting class.

Three middling 3-star recruits. Not a single player ranked higher than 35th at his position.

Sounds to me like Butler is just raking in the prospects.

The catch is though, that Stevens is raking in his prospects. It's the less-hyped recruits—well-rounded individuals who will buy into "The Butler Way."

The kids come to Butler believing in the system and believing in Brad Stevens.

And then a funny thing happens.

Stevens gets them to believe in themselves.

Because to be downright honest with you, Roosevelt Jones is not in the same planet as Archie Goodwin. Same could be said about Khyle Marshall and Alex Poythress.

But remind me, where is Kentucky ranked again?

Point being, is that Butler isn't even on the same planet (talent-wise) as a team like Kentucky. But it  performs like it is.

What's the trick?

Stevens, naturally.

It goes back to the belief. The magical gift that Stevens possesses is his innate ability to instill confidence in the young men who play for him.

He doesn't tear them down, crushing them for their inevitable mistakes. Rather, he takes a calm approach. Focuses on the positive plays. Corrects tactfully. 

In Division I men's basketball, the difference between a good player and a great player comes down to one thing. 

Confidence.

Plus, just to cap everything off, the best part of Butler's most recent win was Stevens' reaction.

Watch it below.

Arms folded. Head down. Good game, Coach Few. Better luck next time.

Just another day in the life of Brad Stevens.

Ho hum.