Groundhog Day... on Elm Street

Last year, Butler University, huge underdogs, played their hearts out and made it all the way to the finals of the NCAA Basketball Championship, where they went up against the team that America loves to hate, Duke University. It was the perfect sports story; the Cinderella had a chance to take down Goliath. Butler played an amazing game, came up two points short, but won the hearts of the country. It was the first time in our memory when no one cared that the winner, Duke, won; all the headlines the next day were about how great Butler was, even in their loss. But even months later, we were still thinking how it couldn't get any worse than to lose the national championship in such a close game, right? Wrong! Try losing the national championship because you played the worst game of your life.

Last night was the final game in the 2011 NCAA Basketball Championship, and amazingly, Butler made it to the finals again. This time they were facing The University of Connecticut, or UConn, who was certainly beatable; UConn had struggled all season to find their footing. So most of America went into last night's game thinking, "Finally, this might the year that the Butler can finally win it, and avenge the heartbreaking loss of last year". And as it turned out, Butler did have the game in their hands, UConn wasn't playing well at all. Butler should have easily won the game, except for one small thing: they couldn't make a field goal to save their lives. Butler had a horrific night of shooting, going 12 of 64 from the field for a shocking, record-low 18.8% f.g.a. They couldn't hit three point shots, they couldn't hit two point shots, they couldn't even hit lay-ups. It was shocking to watch a team which normally shoots so well, to shoot so poorly and to miss shots they would normally make in their sleep. UConn's defense was tight, no doubt, but Butler had more than enough uncontested shots to have won the game, if they'd only gone in.

UConn won the game 53-41, and they get to hold the trophy, as the winner of the game does deserve to do, but no one this morning is overly enthusiastic about UConn's win; everyone realizes that UConn didn't win so much as Butler just blew it. So which is worse, to lose by two points to the most hated team in America, or lose a game you should have easily won but lose by playing the worst game of your life? We can't decide. They both suck. The only consolation for Butler is that they have changed the view of modern college basketball. They have proved that a mid-sized school that's not one of the "elite basketball-factory universities" can find success on a national level, which is a great thing. But come on, we're sure Butler would trade all that for a couple of made field goals in last night's game.

The Most Unpopular Win

In the 1970's, tennis in America reached its zenith of popularity thanks in part to the circus-like antics of stars John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, to the ground-breaking success of Billie Jean King and to the mega-watt star appeal of Chris Evert. But in the 1980's a new sheriff came to town, the Soviet bloc-born, robotic automatron that was Ivan Lendl. Lendl showed absolutely no emotion as he charged to 9 grand slam titles, including 8 straight U.S. Open finals, (winning three). Lendl was the complete antithesis of McEnroe and Connors in personality, and for that, and because he routinely defeated American heroes McEnroe and Connors, he was widely disliked.
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And then, in 1986, came a shocking declaration of that dislike. Sports Illustrated, one of the most respected chroniclers of American sport, published a cheap, snarky, even bitchy cover in which they publically announced their personal dislike for the tennis champion. There was a photo of Lendl, who had just won the U.S. Open, and instead of celebrating his win, the cover caption read "The Champion That Nobody Cares About". It was the junior high school equivalent of seventh grade cheerleaders taking bitchy swipes at each other. We lost a lot of respect for Sports Illustrated that week, and have never felt the same about the magazine since. To this day, Lendl, himself, refuses to grant interviews to the magazine.
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We couldn't help but be reminded of that infamous incident last week when Duke University narrowly defeated the upstart Butler University Bulldogs, by two points, to win the NCAA basketball championship. If there was ever a time in American sport when one could accurately say that no one cared about the winning champion or winning team, that statement would most definitely apply to this year's Duke win. Not that we dislike Duke, but Butler was the ultimate Cinderella of all time. A small school, (enrollment 4,200), completely unheard of by most Americans before the tournament, stormed through the championship, finding themselves in the final against perennial powerhouse, Duke. The entire nation was pulling for Butler, everyone wanted them to win and to cap one of the greatest underdog stories of all time. It was like a great, blockbuster Hollywood movie in which the hero would save the day in the final frame.
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Again, not that anyone hated Duke, we're sure that someone somewhere was cheering for Duke to win, but this game wasn't even really about who was playing, the game was more than that; it became a great, national, watercooler moment, an epic story of David and Goliath, and everyone wanted the little guy to win. No one wanted Duke to win. In fact, the next day almost every newspaper in America led with headlines about "Butler's Heartbreak" and "Butler's Disappointing Loss" instead of headlines celebrating Duke's win. Duke spoiled the story.
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(gordon hayward)
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Now all eyes are on 6'9" sophomore Gordon Hayward, the undisputed star of Butler's team and one of the best players in college basketball. If Hayward, a sexier Opie Taylor, avoids the NBA draft and returns for his junior year, many are already saying that Butler could be the pre-season #1. And hopefully, we could do this all over again.