The butler did it…again. Yesterday’s miraculous buzzer-beater lay-in by Matt Howard to beat Old Dominion had me reminiscing over Butler’s miraculous run last year to the national championship game as a five-seed. Does this mean we’re in for a repeat performance? Not so sure. You see, there’s a certain breadstick-eating, prepubescent-looking piece missing from this year’s team that was crucial in the Bulldogs’ triumphant run last year. That boyish charm I’m referring to is none other than Gordon Hayward, who bolted to the NBA after his epic sophomore season in Indianapolis. Read More »

With the NCAA deadline for players to withdraw their names from NBA Draft consideration rapidly approaching on May 8th, one of the most intriguing underclassmen prospects is still on the fence about his decision – at least publicly that is. Butler’s Gordon Hayward, who probably helped his stock more than any other player during the NCAA Tournament last month, is currently projected all over the first round from multiple mock draft websites. He’s already declared that he will test the NBA’s draft process without hiring an agent, thus leaving him a window to return back to Indianapolis if he doesn’t like what he hears from scouts. But with almost no time to decide before the NCAA deadline passes, Hayward is going to have to make up his mind quickly. Read More »

With the season almost over, NBA GMs have their minds set on the NBA Playoffs. But for those teams that will be counting ping pong balls instead of playoff victories, the upcoming NBA Draft has many intriguing prospects that need to be recognized. So with March Madness over, Dime contributor Lucas Shapiro continues profiling players and giving them a team that would best fit their talent. Last week was Kansas’ Xavier Henry, so now we’re on to Butler’s Gordon Hayward. Read More »

Under the list of ingredients that have become standard in the NCAA championship recipe — defense, momentum, chip on the shoulder, good coaching, depth, etc. — perhaps we should add one more: Ability to win ugly. Last night’s national title game between Duke and Butler wasn’t one for smooth flowing offense and highlight buckets, but it was nonetheless an instant classic with crazy intensity, where both sides played like their lives were on the line and put on a defensive clinic before Duke walked out of the octagon with its fourth national championship … Read More »

The always entertaining and interesting Jonah Lehrer has an essay in this past weekend’s Wall Street Journal which uses recent studies to examine The Superstar Effect: “While challenging competitions are supposed to bring out our best, these studies demonstrate that when people are forced to compete against a peer who seems far superior, they often don’t rise to the challenge. Instead, they give up.” Tiger Woods is the prime example, and though the studies mostly revolve around individually geared performances from SAT’s to performing in the work place, the effect applies more generally to underdogs. Read More »

Before you settle in this afternoon for the Final Four games (Butler/MSU tips off at 6 p.m. EST), first you should read these: The Dime crew’s best arguments for Michigan State, West Virginia, Butler or Duke walking away with the national championship after the dust settles Monday night. And for a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like for the players in Indianapolis, check out Dime’s Final Four Diary with WVU’s Kevin Jones … Five minutes into last night’s Spurs/Magic game, things were looking bleak for the home team. Read More »

For all of those haters and “experts” who have been crying from moment the original NCAA Tournament seedings were announced weeks ago (and there were many) that Duke was handed a cakewalk to the Final Four, know this: when the smoke clears, Duke will have absolutely earned their stripes by battling through what has quickly become the most difficult road to a national championship faced by any team in the field. Read More »

Let me get this out of the way: Gordon Hayward is not Jimmy Chitwood, and the Butler Bulldogs are not the Hickory High Hoosiers. But if all goes according to plan, Butler’s historic run to the Final Four will go down as one of the greatest in college basketball history.

Look at the teams they’ve beaten: 12-seed UTEP, 13-seed Murray State, 1-seed Syracuse and 2-seed Kansas State. Read More »

Winter Park (Fla.) High School point guard Austin Rivers is one of the best prep players, pound-for-pound, in the country. HighSchoolHoop.com ranks the 6-4 junior fifth overall in its national top 50. Rivers has been verbally committed to Florida for over a year, but this fall, decided to open things up and let Duke recruit him as well.

The younger son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers and younger brother of Indiana Hoosiers PG Jeremiah Rivers, Austin has agreed to give HSH and Dime exclusive access by chronicling his thoughts in a regular diary where he’ll update readers on everything from his personal life to his high school season to his thoughts on Duke and Florida. Here are some excerpts from his newest entry: Read More »

Jonny Flynn just tweeted the following about the big Syracuse/Butler upset:

For everybody solely placing the blame on 1 individual player #youreajoke it was jus 1 of the games where Butler was the better team tonight

We’re assuming that Jonny is referring to messages he’s getting on Twitter about the stretch run (and misses) from Scoop Jardin and/or the ZERO field goal attempts from Wesley Johnson in the last six minutes.

So who’s really to blame for the ‘Cuse collapse, if anybody? Read More »