End of the Innocence for The Butler Bulldogs?

As every basketball fan undoubtly knows, the Butler Bulldogs are coming home, as the official and almost-literal host to the Final Four.

It's a remarkable story full of Hollywood-parallels, including a small-school basketball team built on fundamentals and defense, playing their home games at the cathedral of Hoosier Hysteria, the home of the golden age of the state's high school tournament, and the film site of the closing scenes of "Hoosiers" to boot. In fact, the Legend of Butler might be better served if their run ended achingly close to a national championship.

Just like the movie storyline omitted the fact that the real-life Milan Indians made the state semi-finals the year before their historic triumph, a lot of casual fans have forgotten or aren't aware the Bulldogs have been building a solid program over several years and four head coaches. They've been busting brackets for the past decade and spent the last few years perennially ranked.

Yes, it's a wonderful story, and I'll up the ante by saying that Bobby Plump, the Milan hero and loose inspiration for Jimmy Chitwood, played his college ball at Butler.

Now here's the bad news for a lot of sports fans: The Bulldogs are no flash-in-the-pan, one-shot Hollywood story. There's a good chance they're going to get better. They're expected to return four of their five starters and possibly their coach.  

As more attention comes to Butler's private-school campus in a leafy section of Indianapolis, watch out for the backlash, because many will see the Bulldogs in shades of another blue-clad private school: Duke.

Unfortunately, we've become a nation of haters. We love a Cinderella story, until society deflowers it in some way.

Butler is teetering on becoming America ’s next Duke–the team millions love to hate.  The Blue Devils were charming when they ascended to perennial power-status a little more than 20 years ago, chock full of wholesome-looking smart kids who couldn't quite get over the hump. They were America 's team–until they broke through and won the title, and then won and won some more. Rooting for Duke has become like rooting for Microsoft.

Now, to many sports fans, they're the despised Dukies, an image that played at least a small role in the furor over the he-said, she-said alleged rape scandal involving several members of the Blue Devils' lacrosse team. The charges were eventually dropped, but not before they were smeared in the media and public perception.

You'd have to be a sociologist to determine why we sour on a winner, because Butler's story ought to reinforce the anything-can-happen nature of March Madness. 

If a little school the middle of Big 10 country and an NBA and NFL town, with no real national cache, until recently, can win with mostly small-town kids in an aging but historic arena, then why can't you?  As Curt Schilling famously said, mystique and aura “are dancers at a club.”

Let's enjoy the Butler Bulldogs because they're a great story from a place that loves great stories.

Now let's all hope Butler doesn't have a lacrosse team.