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.