Well, this year BOTH of our predictions FINALLY came true. As the 64 (well really 65) teams started narrowing down, we began to realize that our dream of a Duke Butler final might come true!
And on April 5th, the final game played in Indianapolis was just what we had hoped for:
VS
Apparently more people than just my sister and I were excited. Almost 24 million people watched this game, which is the most viewers for the championship game in the past 10 years. However, I bet few of the viewers were "for real" fans. There were definitely more "for real" Duke fans out their than "for real" Butler fans. See I highly doubt the people cheering for Butler that night had been cheering for them the past 5 years, went out of their way to see them play, and owned a shirt. My sister, however, had done all of these. I do see where these "bandwagon" Butler fans were coming from. If had not been such a huge Duke fan, I too would have been cheering for this "cinderlla" team. (Although many-including me- would argue that they were not a "cinderella" team as they were in top ten most of the season).
The game was everything we had hoped it would be and more. It was such a wonderfully played game.
Taken from Wikipedia because it can say it much better than i can (if you aren't a basketball fan just read the larger font):
The second half was played very closely, with neither team taking a lead larger than two points until a Brian Zoubek layup put Duke up 47–43 with 12:27 remaining. Butler stayed close, keeping within 5 points the rest of the way. With 3:16 to play, Duke took a 60–55 lead on two made free throws by Nolan Smith. Butler missed its next shot, but forced a missed shot and turned Duke over after an offensive rebound. Matt Howard made a layup for Butler to make it a 60–57 game with 1:44 remaining. Smith missed a layup for Duke and Howard got another layup after collecting an offensive rebound on missed three-pointer by Shelvin Mack. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski then called a time out. Kyle Singler missed an open jump shot with 36 seconds remaining, giving Butler a chance to take the lead. Butler was unable to initiate their offense and Stevens called a timeout to set up a play. They were then forced to call their last timeout when they were unable to get the ball in-bounds. Gordon Hayward then missed a short fade-away jumper. Zoubek came down with the rebound, forcing Butler to foul with less than 4 seconds remaining. Zoubek made the first foul shot and then intentionally missed the second, knowing Butler had no timeouts remaining. Hayward was forced to throw up a desperation shot from half court. The ball bounced off the backboard and then the rim. According to analysis by ESPN, Hayward's aim was off by three inches, or less than one degree, on the x-axis.
The final score was Duke 61- Butler 59. What is interesting is Duke was one of the very few teams to score 60 points or more on Butler this season.
