College basketball has officially been back for a couple months but I haven't been able to get into it as enthusiastically as prior seasons. It's hard to tell if that's due to the overall dampening effect of COVID or because my alma mater, Butler, is going through a bit of a rebuilding phase due to the departure of graduating seniors Kamar Baldwin and Sean McDermott along with the head-scratcher decision for Jordan Tucker to declare for the NBA draft early (currently without an NBA team). To top it off, the team lost one of its top recruits Scooby Johnson to a season-ending injury before the season even began.
So, partly because Butler fans could use a pick-me-up and partly because one of their biggest fans turns 36 this weekend (happy birthday Dan!), I thought now might be a good time to revisit some happier times.
Here are the ten moments I have enjoyed the most from Butler basketball.
#10
Butler vs. Louisville (Round of 32)
March 23, 2003
Growing up around Lafayette, my family gravitated toward rooting for Purdue and, unless they're playing Butler, I still wish the Boilermakers well. But once my sister chose to attend Butler from 1997 to 2001, I found a new team to cheer on. Coincidentally that was also the time that the basketball program was taking some big steps forward and achieving more notoriety. The team made the tournament in my sister's freshman year of 1998 and lost in the first round in a close game to New Mexico. Two years later, head coach Barry Collier took the team to the NCAA tournament as a 12 seed where they faced off against number 5 Florida. The twelve vs. five match-up is notorious for almost always producing upsets and Butler took Florida to overtime and even held a three point lead with 20 seconds to go. But the inability to hit free throws late led to a Mike Miller game winning floater that, even now, is tough to watch.
Collier would leave for Nebraska setting up Thad Matta to lead the Bulldogs the following season. The team advanced to the second round of the tournament by defeating Wake Forest but then were completely crushed by Arizona (Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Luke Walton) in the second round. Butler seemed like a cute Cinderella story for the CBS broadcasting team but not a team that anybody really took seriously.
Then came the 2003 tournament with a team led by seniors Brandon Miller, Darnell Archey and Joel Cornette. My allegiance to Butler had only grown not just because Miller and Archey had visited my high school basketball team's practice but also because by that point I knew that I would be attending Butler in the fall. So I was even more emotionally invested in this team and this tournament.
True to the twelve / five upset stereotype, the Todd Lickliter-coached squad, a twelve seed, squeaked by five seed Mississippi State in a nail biter opening round upset. That set up a match-up with four seed Louisville for the chance to go to the Sweet 16. You can see grainy footage of the highlights above but Archey couldn't miss. He went off for 26 points on eight of nine from three. And Notre Dame transfer Mike Monserez went four for seven from deep to help the team pull off another upset.
Butler would fall in the next round to number one seed Oklahoma. The team lost by nine but the game played closer than that. More importantly, it seemed like Butler broke through the stereotype and, while the team would still be labeled as a Cinderella, it didn't seem out of place to see them in the tournament making noise against larger basketball programs. To me, these teams served as the foundation for what the program would become over the next twenty years.
#9
Butler vs. Florida (Sweet 16)
March 23, 2007
Following the 2003 accomplishment of reaching the Sweet 16, Butler failed to make it to the tournament over the next three seasons. A couple of the freshmen recruits from my class failed to pan out and upperclassmen like Brandon Polk, Avery Sheets and Bruce Horan weren't enough to lift the team out of the Horizon League and into the tournament. My friends and I still had a great time attending some competitive games at Hinkle Fieldhouse but we wanted to see the team make a legit tournament run before we graduated.
2007 was our last chance to see that happen and the team delivered. Anchored by a very strong junior class of A.J. Graves, Mike Green and Pete Campbell as well as senior big men Brandon Crone and Brian Ligon, Butler won the Horizon League and made it to the NCAA tournament. But in the opening round, the tables were now turned. Instead of the plucky underdog 12 seed like the 2003 team, Butler was now the favored number five seed.
I really don't even remember that opening round game and, looking back at the recap, Butler went on a 17-0 run that iced the game. The next round was against Maryland and I was only able to watch the last couple minutes of that game in an airport coming home from spring break. But I remember watching Graves hit a huge three from the corner late in the game to put Butler over the top. That set up another trip to the Sweet 16 and a match-up with the heavily favored Florida Gators who boasted future NBA talent Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Horford. The previous season, the Final Four was held in Indianapolis and my buddy Nick got us tickets to watch the final game of this essentially this same Florida team against UCLA. The game was never in doubt and Florida trounced the Bruins by twenty. I'm sure at some point of the game, he and I discussed hypothetically how Butler would hold up against this very talented Gators team. Less than a year later that hypothetical would turn into reality.
I didn't have high hopes that Butler could beat Florida in 2007 but it was the NCAA tournament and anything could happen. I did want the team to at least have a good showing and keep it a close game. I wanted to prove that our program was one that belonged and not a "isn't it adorable that they're here" team. Butler did manage to make a game of it and only lost by eight after some late fouling and free throws. Again, this was more of a moral victory. It was the second time the team had reached the Sweet 16 in four years and it reinforced the notion that the program was beginning to become a mainstay in the tournament and in the basketball viewing public's mind.
Lickliter would leave the following season to coach Iowa (didn't go great) which left the door open for assistant Brad Stevens to be promoted. He'd do okay.
#8
Kamar Baldwin Loves Game Winning Threes
February 5 and March 7, 2020
COVID robbed us of a lot of sports joy over the course of 2020 but at least Butler fans got these two gems one month apart to end both the 2019-2020 season and a really nice playing career for Kamar Baldwin.
My wife went to Villanova so any chance I have to hold some modicum of basketball success over her, I will gladly take. But she can always pull the trump card of two national titles in the last decade so there's only so much I can celebrate. I love the announcer here warning "don't settle for deep" before Baldwin does indeed settle for deep and bury the game winning three.
As for the last shot of Baldwin's collegiate career, there are few feelings better than beating Xavier. More on that in a second. But first, enjoy possibly the best way that a Butler basketball player can end his college career. 36 points and a game winner over your biggest rival.
#7
Butler vs. Xavier (The Clock Controversy)
December 19, 2009
What a game this was. The 2009-2010 team, led by a starting five of Gordon Hayward, Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard, Willie Veasley and Ronald Nored were about three months away from making a run at the 2010 NCAA championship on that late December afternoon. All Butler fans cared about that day was beating Chris Mack and a very talented Xavier team.
I was in attendance with a broken foot and in the company of a couple of my best friends, one of whom brought his girlfriend (now wife) who had only met me once, maybe twice. As a preface, I think I'm the king of saying something in anger or competitiveness only to instantly regret it. Instantly. It's particularly been a problem when watching Butler or Cubs games in the company of rival fans. It's my least favorite trait about myself and I hope that at 36 years old I'll be able to keep it in check going forward. I did not keep it in check on that 2009 afternoon. I didn't say anything egregious but there was an Xavier-backing couple in their mid-forties sitting behind us who were just loudly cheering on their team. I made some kind of comment, purposely loud enough that they could hear me, along the lines of it being annoying sitting in front of opposing fans. The wife of couple didn't like that. Nothing came of it but I just felt like a jerk. Certainly not my best moment. And it was in the first half. The first half of a game that would turn particularly contentious by the end.
You can pick the above video up about six and a half minutes in. Xavier is up by three. Mack makes two free throws with 38 seconds left to cut it to one. Then the chaos set in. My high school hosted an event a couple times called "donkey basketball" which is exactly what it sounds like. Mats would be put down on the gym floor and grown men would try to play basketball while riding donkeys. Those games were more organized than the last 38 seconds of this game. But the end of this game would be a microcosm of how this same team would use talent, luck and hustle to grind out a trip to the NCAA championship two years in a row.
Hayward does so much to get this win that I either never noticed or just forgot. After Shelvin Mack makes the second free throw, the following happens:
- Hayward ties up the Xavier inbounds pass to force a jump ball and give possession back to Butler
- Mack misses a corner three with 32 seconds left
- Hayward gets the offensive rebound
- Mack's pass to Nored is knocked into the back court with 18 seconds left
- When Mack retrieves the ball in the back court with 15 seconds left, the clock is mistakenly stopped for about 1.5 seconds anticipating a back court violation
- Veasley misses a wing three with 8 seconds left
- Howard does an incredible box-out/takedown to clear out the paint allowing Hayward and Veasley to scrum for the loose ball
- Veasley recovers (way to follow your shot) and knocks it to a now-standing Hayward who lays it in with 1.2 seconds left. Bedlam in Hinkle but to us in the stands there were still 1.2 seconds left.
Then it got really ugly. The refs confer and announced that counting the unintended clock stoppage, there shouldn't be any time left on the clock but Hayward still got the shot off in time. Game over, Butler win. Chris Mack, Xavier's team and all Xavier fans completely lost it. One of Xavier's players ripped out a water fountain on the way back to the locker room. One player tried to get to a couple opinionated Butler students in the stands. Chris Mack had to be physically restrained from going after a referee. And, of all games to not be able to leave quickly, I had to hobble out of there on crutches. Great atmosphere at that game though.
I understand why Xavier was upset and, if the tables were turned, I would feel the same way. But the odds of even getting a decent shot off with one second left were very small especially considering that the ball would have to be taken out at the far end of the court. The 1992 Christian Laettner shot is a classic for a reason; it's almost impossible to convert.
It's funny that in the NCAA tournament that year, Xavier would actually do Butler a small favor by taking a very talented Kansas State team to a high energy, double overtime game in the Sweet 16. That extra strain on Kansas State's legs may have been a small leg up for Butler who beat K-State in the Elite Eight. I do wonder what would have happened had Butler and Xavier met for a rematch in the Elite Eight had Xavier been able to beat Kansas State. We'll never know and that's probably a good thing for the water fountains of the tournament site in Salt Lake City.
#6
Butler vs. Indiana (Crossroads Classic)
December 15, 2012
After reaching the NCAA championship in 2010 (oh-so-close to winning a nail biter classic game) and in 2011 (ugh, move along, nothing to see here) Butler missed the tournament completely in 2012. Hayward and Mack had left for the NBA. Howard and Veasley had graduated. The team was now a mix of upper classmen like Andrew Smith, Chase Stigall, Khyle Marshall, and red-shirt senior transfer Rotnei Clarke, who Blake Griffin once described as a better shooter than Steph Curry and newcomers like Roosevelt Jones, Kellen Dunham and Alex Barlow.
I didn't know what to make of this team heading into the 2012-2013 season and, as a bigger question, I didn't know if the basketball program would stay relevant or we would fade into basketball mediocrity with the best days behind us, similar to programs like UNLV. Games like this one versus IU in the Crossroads Classic were a reassurance that we would stay in the conversation as a viable and competitive basketball program.
This was just a great back and forth game as Clarke and Stigall hit a lot of long range shots to keep the game close. Barlow caps it off with a shooter's touch spin move. Not the prettiest shot but I give him a lot of credit. The defense dares him to take the shot and he delivers. Upsets against number one ranked opponents are inevitable in college basketball especially early in the year but it was the way that this Butler team hung in there as IU kept pushing them and pushing them that impressed me. This Butler team would unfortunately fall in the second round of the March tournament to a good Marquette team in a very close game. But this December game against IU was definitely one to remember.
#5
Butler vs. Michigan State (NCAA Semi-Final)
April 3, 2010
Unless you're a Butler fan this was probably one of the more forgettable Final Four games. Both offenses clammed up for most of the second half. Shelvin Mack could barely play three minutes without cramping up. Butler held on through clutch free throw shooting (particularly from Nored) and tough defense. My friends, my dad and I were at this game and despite a MSU fan throwing up right behind my dad before tip-off and our seats being a quarter mile away, it was one of the greatest sports experiences of my life and I'll always remember it as a great day I got to share with close friends and family. When the final horn sounded, dozens of Michigan State fans began raising up their tickets overhead for Monday's game signaling that they were up for sale. One of my friends (the birthday boy) asked me for cash and I must have been slow on the draw to pull some out of my wallet because after a couple seconds, he just snatched my entire wallet and ran off into the crowd.
I left to go back to New Jersey that Sunday and didn't stay for the championship. Even though Butler lost that Monday, I wish I would have been there. I won't post the video of the last six minutes from that game. If anyone's reading this, chances are they're a Butler fan (or googled "Michigan State throwing up", in which case, get off my site you weirdo) and there's no need to make a Butler fan relive Hayward's half court shot just grazing off the rim. But if you ask any Butler fan, they'll tell you that looking back at those last couple minutes, the two chances that hurt the most are Hayward's fadeaway corner shot that was right in line but just a little too hard and Mack's pull-up three from the elbow that he had converted so many times all season. Still painful but there were some great memories that went along with those Final Four runs. And this win over Michigan State was one of them.
#4
Butler vs. Gonzaga
January 19, 2013
Gonzaga was the original mid-major Cinderella basketball program. Even now some people may view them that way even though they're one of the more consistent and dominant programs in the country. So I assume that there were some college basketball fans who viewed Butler as a little brother to Gonzaga. The media played it up that way prior to these two teams facing off in mid-January 2013. And I wanted to see Butler rise to the occasion and win.
After beating number one Indiana in late December, this Butler team had climbed up to number 13 in the national rankings while Gonzaga sat at number eight. It was a close, back and forth game that saw Gonzaga winning with about 4.5 seconds left. Barlow dragged his pivot foot after receiving the in-bounds pass, which looked like it would be the deciding factor in the game. In the moment I was upset with Barlow but I remember immediately thinking that karma had come back around for that friendly roll Barlow received on the game winning shot against IU back in December. Karma wasn't in Hinkle that night though, or it left to beat the traffic immediately after that traveling violation.
Jones stole the in-bounds pass, made his way up the court and hit a floater to win it. Jones always had such great touch around the rim even if it didn't look the prettiest. Great poise by him to know exactly how much time he had to shoot after out-jumping Kelly Olynk for the ball on the inbounds pass. Vitale lost his mind on-air after the shot went down but Brad Stevens calmly walked to half court as the shot was going down to shake Mark Few's hand. He must have learned from Larry Bird's coaching method. This win was another great moment in Hinkle and one of the highlights from this team.
#3
Butler vs. Florida (Elite 8)
March 26, 2011
Full highlight here since the NCAA won't allow embedding their videos.
The Final Four run in 2011 was even more improbable than the one in 2010 especially considering that Hayward had left for the NBA and Veasley, one of their top defenders, had graduated. This team struggled against some Horizon League opponents over the course of the season so heading into the tournament, my hopes weren't high. Butler, as an eight seed, scraped by ODU thanks to a game winner from Matt Howard. That was followed by a "I can't believe we won that game" against number one ranked Pitt (more on that later) before winning a grind-it-out game against Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. I kept viewing each win in this tournament as gravy on top of how far the team had advanced the prior year but I kept waiting for the ride to end. Halfway through the second half against Florida in the Elite Eight, I thought that it had.
With about six minutes to play, Butler was only down seven but it felt like more than that. The offense was having trouble getting going other than whatever Mack was able to create from long range and Florida's big men seemed like they were scoring at will. Enter seldom used freshman Chrishawn Hopkins who hit a long three that cut the lead back to four and seemed to ignite the team. Shawn Vanzant would follow that up with another three that took the kind of favorable bounce that, if you're the other team, you know you're in trouble. It was the kind of bounce that Veasley's corner three had taken against Syracuse in the Sweet 16 the prior year. All of a sudden Florida's lead was only three.
The game would go to overtime where Khyle Marshall hit a big three point play, Mack stayed hot and, thanks to some questionable late shot selection from Billy Donovan and his guards, Butler was able to hold off Florida (some vindication for the Sweet 16 in 2007) and advance to their second straight Final Four. Butler would dispatch VCU and the coaching darling of the tournament Shaka Smart. My friends and I would watch that game together at the wedding of one of our closest college friends who, when planning his wedding, probably never dreamed he'd be stepping on the schedule of another Butler Final Four run. It was a great problem to have. Unfortunately the team went ice cold in the championship game against UConn but it capped another really fun run through the tournament with no game more exciting than this one. Well, maybe one was a little more exciting.....
#2
Butler vs. Pitt (Round of 32)
March 19, 2011
Butler vs Pittsburgh: End of Game (3/19/11) - Butler Radio Audio with Video from brandon gaudin on Vimeo.
I just wanted Butler to make it into the second round of the 2011 tournament. A group of my college friends were visiting me in Philadelphia for the weekend and Butler needed to win their first round match-up if we were all going to have a chance to watch Saturday's game together. Matt Howard's last second shot against Old Dominion both nearly gave me cardiac arrest and assured me that, just like the Final Four the year before, some of my best college friends and I would be able to watch the game together in person.The March weather in Philly that weekend was perfect with sunny skies and mid-seventies temperatures. We enjoyed every minute of it heading into that evening's game against number one ranked Pitt. Mack had a phenomenal game and his shooting, but especially in the first half, kept Butler in the game. The game was close the whole way but it was the last seven seconds that moved the game into the all-time category.
With seven seconds left, Vanzant drove and drew two defenders before dumping off under the basket to Andrew Smith (still hard to believe he's gone) who laid it up and in with two seconds remaining to put Butler up one. My living room was ecstatic. That should have been the game winner as Pitt had no timeouts and was forced to improvise a final shot attempt. But Mack contested Gilbert Brown too closely coming up the sideline and fouled him with a little over a second remaining. Brown made the first free throw but missed the second when Pitt inexplicably fouled Matt Howard on the rebound with only 0.8 seconds left. Howard made the first free throw giving Butler a one point lead before intentionally missing the second free throw. Brad Wanamaker (who would play for Brad Stevens and the Celtics seven years later) wasn't even able to get a desperation heave off and Butler somehow escaped the opening weekend of the 2011 tournament by winning both games by one point.
Watching that game was the full gamut of emotions for all eight of us in that living room - seven Butler grads and my roommate's poor girlfriend (now wife) who had to witness grown men ride a roller coaster of emotions for about 140 minutes. The entire game was tense but those last seven seconds fluctuated between gut-wrenching despair and elation. There was the initial excitement of Smith hitting the go-ahead shot which we were able to enjoy for eight seconds until the Mack foul. I think we were all so excited that a lot of us missed that a foul had even occurred. Then everyone went through the standard beats of a terrible sports loss.
There was denial that this was happening and maybe the whistle was for Brown stepping out of bounds instead of a foul. Then anger at the official for calling a foul until we could see that Mack blatantly fouled him. Frustration for Mack who, after playing an amazing game, would probably be remembered for this mental mistake for years to come. And then the hollow gut feeling that comes with an agonizingly close sports loss when you know your team should have won. All of that happened in one minute and six seconds of real time. Then Howard was fouled. All those emotions flipped. There was a little concern about Howard needing to make one of two but Howard was the leader of the team with some of the most tournament experience and, most importantly, was a good free throw shooter.
The tumultuous nature of those final seven seconds, which somehow was only about three minutes of real time, made the victory even more memorable. Butler fans paid for it with some extra anxiety and heart palpitations but it added to the excitement and legendary status of that two year tournament run and became another memorable March win for Butler's program.
#1
Butler vs. Syracuse
March 25, 2010
Butler had been here before. They had made it to the Sweet 16 twice over the last 13 years but that had always been the ceiling. They were viewed by the media and by many college basketball fans as a perpetual Cinderella story, a team full of David underdogs. And that seemed fine when the team was just trying to make a name for itself and get some name recognition. But if you want to be taken seriously, you have to win big games in later rounds of the tournament. Making the Sweet 16 is an admirable feat, but plenty of teams have done it over the years. Not as many can say that they have made it to the Elite Eight.
So when Butler's immensely talented team moved past the first two rounds in 2010 via an easy win against UTEP and an ugly win against Murray State, I really wanted them to beat Syracuse and take the next step into the Elite Eight. I don't know that I've been more invested in a game than that night. My roommate, also a Butler grad, and I didn't sit all the way back on the couch the whole night. I'm sure we weren't the only ones. We both wanted the same thing which was to see Butler shed some of that "isn't it cute that they're here" persona and become a program that other teams looked upon as a legitimate contender.
This year's team was uniquely suited to fulfill this purpose. A late growth spurt and a love of tennis had kept other, bigger programs away from Gordon Hayward. Butler found him and, credit to Hayward, he stuck to his word and stayed committed to Butler even when bigger schools like Purdue came calling. Shelvin Mack also managed to slip through the cracks of the bigger Kentucky and Ohio schools to commit to Butler. Veasley, one of their best defenders, was a seasoned upperclassmen who had been there when the team played Florida in the Sweet 16 four years prior. Point guard Ronald Nored was a good defender with decent driving ability and but limited shooting. And Matt Howard was a walking contradiction of physical movement. He seemed gangly but strong, awkward but smooth, and slow footed but always in front of his man. Looking back, all the pieces were important but none more so than Howard. He kept the big men in check on defense, was able to hit shots (both inside and out of the arc), hit free throws and seemed to provide a calm to the team along with a series of hustle plays (shades of Brian Cardinal). Plus Stevens was becoming to be known as a good coach who never got rattled.
The stars had seemed to align for this group of guys to play together and it felt like if Butler was ever going to make a run, this was the year to do it. Syracuse was a talented team but, as number one seeds went, seemed beatable. They were led by sharp shooter Andy Rautins, Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph and Wesley Johnson. Butler played them close the entire game but were still down four with a little less than four minutes to play. This seemed like another game that would have to go down as a moral victory in that Butler played close but couldn't get over the hump. Offense seemed to be coming at a premium and, maybe I was biased, but Butler seemed to be working so hard just to get any shot to go down, partly due to Syracuse's zone defense, against which Butler was settling for outside shots for much of the second half. So when Nored pulled up from beyond the arc for a very long three as the shot clock was winding down, my hopes weren't high. When that shot went down, everything clicked and it just seemed like Butler was going to pull it out.
After a Howard spin move lay-up, Veasley hit a corner three that somehow bounced out and then in. At that point, the basketball gods seemed to be on Butler's side this time. If I didn't feel that way before, I was sure of it after Veasley one hand tipped a missed Mack jump shot up and in on the next possession to push the lead to six with a minute to go. At that point as a fan I start doing two things: 1) plead with the clock to count down faster and 2) think of ways that this could still end in disaster. But Butler hung on. They pulled it out. They won. No consolation prize of "they played the bigger program close". No moral victory of "it's good at least you made it this far". They would be moving on. And I've never had a greater feeling watching a Butler basketball game than that one. But....man, if that Hayward half court shot had gone down...
Dan, here's to at least another 36 years of Butler basketball. Your friends agree you're one of the best guys to watch a game with.
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