You’re not alone if you find yourself being amazed how the Butler Bulldogs have been able to make two consecutive runs to the NCAA basketball championship game.
Putting their achievements into context takes a few minutes to fathom, especially since they’re a team with a bunch of guys you hadn’t heard of until last season.
Over the past 10 seasons, Butler has compiled a record of 246-85. The Bulldogs made their fifth straight NCAA tournament this season and have 10 appearances in the big dance since 1997.
Since 2002, Butler has never had a recruiting class ranked in the top 25 by Scout.com. In fact, some of the Bulldogs’ players we’ll see in the national title game weren’t rated any higher than a three-star prospect.
Matt Howard was rated as a three-star player coming out of high school in 2007. Shelvin Mack was a two-star prospect when he signed with Butler in 2008.
Butler is a small school in the Horizon Conference that you’ll seldom see on national TV, unless it’s during one of the early season tournaments or the NCAA tournament.
Even with the Bulldogs becoming regular fixtures among the top 25 polls, Butler is a team no one gives much thought to until tournament time.
Considering what they’ve been able to accomplish with a limited recruiting budget and playing in a conference that doesn’t have a major television deal is nothing short of remarkable.
But Butler’s success is a textbook example of what can happen when a program develops players that fit their system, and even more important of course is how those players are coached.
Since he took over before the 2007-08 season, Brad Stevens has guided Butler to a 117-24 record with four NCAA tournament appearances.
You’d be hard pressed to name a better coach in college basketball right now, because no one has done more with the limited amount of talent available to him than Stevens.
A few years ago many looked upon the Bulldogs as a novelty, a team that would give one of the higher seeds a scare before bowing out of the tournament.
But those days are over. They can still claim to be underdogs – and they are – but they don’t play like underdogs or overachievers. Butler plays a hard-nosed brand of basketball that gives the more talented and athletic teams fits.
And why? Because Steven understands his players skills and he preaches to them about knowing their respective roles.
When you have a team that believes in the system and understands what’s expected from them as individuals, it can be a thing of beauty to watch.
It doesn’t matter if Butler defeats Connecticut in tonight’s national championship game, because the Bulldogs have clearly established themselves as one of the premier basketball programs in America.
But think of the shock waves that will ripple throughout the nation if Butler can find a way to win. Unlike college football, teams like the Bulldogs can win a national title because they’re given a chance.
Defeating the Huskies wouldn’t necessarily change the landscape of college basketball, but it would give smaller programs like Butler hope that they can compete with the major schools from the bigger conferences.
For all their disadvantages and having to play against a decidedly stacked deck, Butler has done what no one thought possible – expect the Bulldogs.
