A Butler Final Four repeat?!!! (Random thoughts from college basketball's biggest week.)

Sorry folks, but I can't help it. I promise that this isn't turning into a basketball blog, but this IS another March Madness/Butler University Bulldogs related blog post. I wasn't necessarily expecting to be able to still be cheering the Bulldogs on at this point in the tournament, but I'm certainly EXCITED about it.

First, some bracketology and predictions:

I honestly believe that whichever team wins the Butler vs. VCU game will win it all.

I was actually hoping that we'd end up playing Kansas because everyone knows that "Kansas always chokes" and there's a solid history of "big teams" overlooking Butler or, even if they think they're prepared, not really being prepared for Butler's tenacious defense and whole-team style of play. VCU, on the other hand, is tough. Butler coach, Brad Stevens, said in an interview this week that if the NCAA had seeded the tournament after the first week of play, VCU might have been the number one seed overall. He's a gracious man and I think his comments were a little bit of strategy on his part, but they are a tough, intimidating team.

I think that the strategy in Stevens' well-chosen words is related to VCU Coach Smart's "chip on our shoulder because no one thinks we deserve to be here" pre-game team motivational speeches that we've seen before every broadcast. It's worked for them thus far, but will he still be able to play that card this weekend? They've pretty much proven that they deserve to be here. I guess we'll have to see.

Who is truly the "little guy" in this scenario?

VCU may be a mid major because of their conference, but here's a Final Four fun fact for you regarding the size of these schools:

2011 Student Enrollment:
VCU = 32,000
UCONN = 29,000
UK = 27,000
Butler = 4,500

I know that the Butler team isn't satisfied with just getting to the Final Four, even though no one else may have predicted they would do so. They have unfinished business from last year. 

However, I'll be proud of them, regardless of the outcome.  How could you not be? The fact that Matt Howard has won the award for having the highest GPA among all of the players on the Final Four teams for the second year in a row is a pretty good indication of why we are proud of this team.

And finally, because I know you want to see some more of this adorable mascot, here are some of Butler Blue II's antics since we last checked in on him:  
 

Even though Butler had made it into the Elite Eight by beating Wisconsin,
the campus took time to celebrate Blue's 7th birthday on Friday.

It worked with the Bucky Badger
cookie, so he did it again -
Gator chomp Bulldog style!

Then he killed a Gator toy!

















Already the big dog on campus, Blue branched out to become a big dog around town.  He found himself center court at an Indiana Pacers game where he got a standing ovation!

Did you hear that Pacers? Are you paying attention, Larry Byrd? Make a trade to get Hayward off of Utah's bench and then draft Howard. You'd fill Conseco Fieldhouse for every home game. THAT would bring your fan base back!

And then the Butler Bulldogs beat Florida in a too-close-for-comfort, come-from-behind, Dodie-had-to-watch-it-through-her-fingers, Phillip-paced-the-entire-time, overtime game to return to the Final Four for a second year in a row!  (It was funny to hear Indiana Pacers legend, Reggie Miller, getting just a little bit too excited about Butler's play during the end of regulation and the overtime.)

It was time for Blue to reveal a new mask in honor of the occasion and Final Four location:

Indianapolis went wild with pride for "our" little school and our great Butler Bulldogs and suddenly, the rest of the nation started to take notice of Blue as well. Banned from the previous tournament games, he was finally free to attend the Final Four in Houston!

Blue's been on every local channel's news, every radio show, and even on ESPN more times than I can count this week. His upcoming trip to Houston even got coverage by celebrity gossip site and show, TMZ.

In one of his final official acts before boarding the Butler fan charter to Houston, he did his part to keep the streak alive:

Tear up that Ram cookie, Blue! Chomp!!

LET'S GO DAWGS!

IMPORTANT: All photos and the video are the property of ButlerBlue2 and/or Butler University.



My favorite dog (other than our own, of course) - Butler Blue II

A couple of blogs back I talked about March Madness and how much we love the hometown team, the Butler University Bulldogs.  They've made it to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past ten years and, although they're being referred to less frequently as a Cinderella team, they still seem to often be called an "underdog." That's okay. They like playing that role.

Perhaps the most important Bulldog of all is Butler Blue II, the team's live mascot.

There’s nothing better than watching Blue go crazy out on the floor when “his team” is introduced. He starts to bark and wag his little stump of a tail like crazy and each of the players gives him a good petting when their name is announced. He then grabs his giant rawhide bone and struts off of the floor.

He was quite a hit at last year's Final Four, where he played to the crowd and his antics got a lot of CBS camera coverage. So, when Butler made the tournament field this year, the university petitioned the NCAA to see if he could attend the games. The NCAA ruled against the attendance of live mascots of any kind at the early round games due to "lack of space" and "tight turnaround time."

Blue immediately took to "his" Twitter feed (@ButlerBlue2) to plead his case and a hashtag was created (#FreeButlerBlue2) that quickly started to trend, but the NCAA didn't back down from their ruling. Blue then did the next best thing - he created a mask that his fans could display and wear to the games, so he could be at the games in spirit and en masse!

Our pup, Greta, is a huge Butler fan and, truth be told, she has a little bit of a crush on Blue, so she modeled his mask and sent him a picture. Blue was so impressed that he retweeted her photo to all of his fans.

Then the Butler boys found themselves in the Sweet Sixteen again and this shot of Blue appeared on the popular website icanhascheezburger.com:

Tonight it's time to play the Wisconsin Badgers in New Orleans. Still banned from the tournament, Blue released a special version of his mask in honor of the event and locale:

Someone brought Blue a treat today. It's the Wisconsin mascot, Bucky Badger, in dog cookie form. Yummy. "Gimme the cookie! Gimme the cookie!"

Poor Bucky didn't stand a chance.



No matter the result of tonight's game, THIS Bulldog has won the love and admiration of basketball and dog fans everywhere. ESPN.com even had a poll this week about Blue's banning, entitled "Should This Cute Dog Be Banned?"

Even though Blue's most famous photo from this week may not win him any points with Wisconsin fans, it has gone viral.  So I'll leave you with this, Blue echoing my own hopes for tonight's big game:

IMPORTANT: All photos and videos (except for the one of Greta) are the property of ButlerBlue2 and/or Butler University.

Japan

It is so tempting to try my best to think and write about something cheerful, but I just can't do it this week. It doesn't feel right.

Have you ever noticed that, just when you’re starting to feel sorry for yourself about one thing or another, it seems that something horrible happens in the world that has you thanking your lucky stars for how good you really have it?

Everything I’ve read or seen seems to indicate that there is no society more prepared than Japan for facing an earthquake or tsunami. They have frequent safety drills, great architecture, huge sea walls and calm, orderly plans. However, how on earth can any society be prepared to deal with a 9.0 earthquake, followed by a tsunami, followed by hundreds of significant aftershocks, and finally, resulting in the threat of meltdown in multiple nuclear power plants?

As I write this, the official death toll is nearly 7,000, over 10,000 people are still missing, and nearly 400,000 people have been displaced – either because of the destruction or because of evacuations near the damaged nuclear plants.

We’ve all seen the horrendous videos of the violent shuddering of the earth that went on for almost a full minute. We’ve seen entire towns and airports swept away by rushing waves of black water. There have been pictures of huge ships sitting on top of buildings, an entire house floating intact out in the middle of the ocean, and those horrific before and after satellite pictures that show the enormity of the devastation. In these days of instant communication, where everything is broadcast immediately, no matter how graphic or horrific, we've become a little numb. A little immune to catastrophe. However, I can't imagine being immune to the enormity of this situation.

Like most of you, I also can't imagine the horror some of these people who've lost everything and everyone must be facing. So much of the recent news coverage has shifted to the nuclear crisis related to all of this, but there are likely nearly 20,000 people dead and many of whose bodies will never be found. There are hundreds of thousands of people who now have no homes and no belongings. Some of those people who do have homes can't go back to them because of what's happening at those nuclear plants.

These proud people, who just seventy years ago were our enemies, are our friends. While I personally don't agree with everything their government allows to happen (I think their whaling practices under the guise of research are unforgivable), they are our allies and I'm proud of how quickly our military and volunteer search and rescue and emergency teams arrived to help. But what can we do? Those of us sitting in our comfortable houses with our family and belongings intact?

Beyond the obvious answer of donating to legitimate aid organizations like the Red Cross, I don't have an answer. I wish I did. I wish there was more. But I wonder how many of us have actually taken the time to make that donation? The company I work for has a company-matching program for donations like these. That's worth exploring. Does your company have something similar?  I know I that felt better knowing that our small contribution was doubled by the generosity of my employer.

Like so many other recent tragedies, and maybe even more so, this is going to be a long-term recovery. Will we remember our Japanese friends six months from now? A year from now?

I hope so.

In the meantime, please consider donating to the American Red Cross or other reputable organization and don't forget to check with your employer to see if they'll match your donation.  I know that it's a common recommendation, so just consider this blog to be another reminder.

Thanks for reading.

"It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

March means one thing to me (and it's not spring, shamrocks, green beer, or lions and lambs).

March means NCAA men's basketball tournament time!

It’s difficult to grow up in Indiana and not be a basketball fan, especially if your mom and grandmother are pretty enthusiastic sports fans in general. Yes, I said mom and grandmother, not dad and grandfather. I come from a long line of female sports fans. The men in my family have never been particularly crazy about athletics.

Men’s college basketball is probably my favorite spectator sport. I don’t watch the NBA because I believe in things like team play, the calling of fouls and traveling, and the importance of making one’s free throws.

My family followed Indiana University basketball when I was young - eons ago during Bobby Knight’s reign and their 1976 undefeated NCAA championship season. However, I was never a Bobby Knight fan and this caused much strife in my household where, no matter how many chairs he threw or players he shoved, he was still considered to be a basketball coaching god. (Feel free to visualize me rolling my eyes here.)

I went to Ball State University (of David Letterman fame), where I used my student ID to attend as many basketball games as possible during my four years there. I was a sophomore when Ray McCallum (now the head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he coaches his son, Ray McCallum, Jr.) led the Ball State University Cardinals to their very first NCAA tournament appearance, losing in the first round.

My husband, Phillip, grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. He used to “bleed University of Kentucky Wildcat blue,” but not so much recently, as he’s grown disgusted with their coaching choices, their recruiting strategy, and their building-future-NBA-stars-who-leave-school-early mindset.

So, instead, in the past twelve or so years, he and I have settled into a pattern of cheering for a small local university that you may not have heard of until last year – the Butler University Bulldogs. Located about five miles from our house, Butler plays in the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, perhaps best known as the site of the Indiana state high school championship game in the movie “Hoosiers” (and in the real-life scenario that movie is based on – the 1954 state championship game won by tiny Milan High School).

Stopping just short of buying season tickets, we typically attend three or four Butler home games every year.  Butler is truly the "little school that could" and has arguably become the strongest performing mid-major school during the past decade. They have been coached over the past twenty years by a series of talented young men who have ingrained “The Butler Way” into each of their teams (Barry Collier – now Butler’s Athletic Director, Thad Matta – now the coach at Ohio State, Todd Lickliter – who went on to coach for three years at the University of Iowa, and, finally, Brad Stevens – who has quickly become one of the most successful young coaches in NCAA history).

Indianapolis is the home of the NCAA and we’ve been lucky enough to host more than our fair share of men’s and women’s NCAA Final Four events in the past few years. Last year was one of those years, so Phillip and I had put in for the ticket lottery, finding out about six months before the game that we had actually been selected for Final Four tickets! We decided that we’d use the tickets if any of the teams were teams we wanted to see, but we might consider selling them if they weren’t.

At a game early last season, when the Bulldogs were looking particularly good, I joked with Phillip that maybe Butler would be in the Final Four. We laughed at the concept of the tiny “home team” playing in the Final Four and didn’t think much about it until the tournament started and they started to win. Then they kept winning, and kept winning, until we finally found ourselves in Lucas Oil Stadium screaming like crazy, both when they beat Michigan State to go to the championship game against Duke and when they lost to Duke by a heartbreaking two points.

Although I’m not making that kind of prediction for this year, the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that whole “Hoosiers” scenario where, on any given day, any team can beat any other team. There are always the stunners. The upsets. The little teams who knock the highest seeds out in the first or second round.

Phillip and I will, of course, be having our annual personal bracket battle. We fill out our brackets and hang them on the fridge, tracking wins and losses religiously throughout the tournament.

What do we play for? What would any basketball-crazy couple with two German Shepherds and a small backyard play for?

The loser gets solo doggie-doodie scooping duty for the following three months!

Talk about motivation!

Edited to add:

The Butler Bulldogs are in the tournament. They got an automatic bid by winning the Horizon League Championship, beating Milwaukee (a team that had beaten them twice during the regular season) in the league's tournament.  They are an eight seed (a bit higher than had been predicted) and play Old Dominion in the first round. 

Our brackets are filled out and hanging on the fridge. The red marker for mistakes/losses and yellow highlighter for correct choices/wins are ready on the kitchen counter.

LET'S DANCE!