Butler Bulldogs Final Four Bound in NCAA Tournament for First Time

Butler is headed home.

As coach Brad Stevens put it, the Bulldogs were headed home to Indianapolis no matter the result of this afternoon’s Elite Eight game in Salt Lake City against Kansas State. But now they have hats for the ride home.

Those hats proclaim Butler as the champions of the West regional in the NCAA Tournament and as a member of the 2010 Final Four to be held in Indianapolis, just miles from the Butler campus, next weekend.

The Bulldogs’ 63-56 victory over No. 2 seed Kansas State bore a striking resemblance to their surprising 63-59 Sweet 16 victory over No. 1 seed Syracuse.

Butler once again jumped out to an early lead as their favored opponent struggled to make contested (and some uncontested) shots. The Bulldogs opened up a 20-10 lead on the Wildcats and led 27-20 at the half.

Just as against Syracuse, the Butler lead waned early in the second half as Kansas St. scored a quick six points to cut the deficit to 27-26. Butler held firm, however, and opened the lead back up to 44-34 with 11 minutes to play. Seemingly every time, Kansas St. pulled within four to six points, Butler hit a critical three-point shot to secure their lead.

The Bulldogs hit an impressive seven of 15 threes on the game, and almost all of the shots were timely.

Even as the Bulldogs out-shot, out-rebounded, and seemingly out-hustled their taller and larger opponents, Kansas St. stayed within striking distance in a low-scoring affair.

The Wildcats’ star guard tandem of Jacob Pullen and Dennis Clemente struggled throughout the first 20 minutes of the game, but then Clemente found the hot touch with his shooting. Clemente sparked a 13-to-2 Kansas St. run that gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game with just under five minutes to play.

Just like in the Sweet 16 against Syracuse, Butler had blown a lead that they had maintained for most of the game.

But in the final five minutes of the game, just when everyone expected the team with the better ranking and reputation to pull away, Butler put together key defensive stands and scored on their most critical possessions.

Against the Orange in the Sweet 16, the Bulldogs forced two critical steals and hit two game determining three-point shots in the final minutes. Against the Wildcats this afternoon, they forced Kansas St. into bad shots at the end of the shot clock and then drew fouls at the other end, which sent them to the free-throw line even as their field goal shooting had abandoned them towards the end of the second half.

Finally, the clock hit double zeros and the Bulldogs remained on top, 64-57.

Sophomore Gordon Hayward led Butler with 22 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Shelvin Mack added 16 points and seven rebounds.

With a second victory in as many tries against a heavily favored opponent from a major conference, the Bulldogs advanced to their first ever Final Four with hopes of continuing their surprising run in their hometown next weekend.