Private Party

If the Butler Bulldogs weren’t already enough of a Hoosiers-style underdog story, they are now, heading into the final night of the Big Dance against the mighty Duke Blue Devils — a team that has won three national championships under coach Mike Krzyzewski, who also happens to be the gold medal-winning coach of USA Basketball.

Although the local Indianapolis liberal arts college was ranked No. 8 in the final regular season AP poll — and have arguably the best player on either team in sophomore wingman Gordon Hayward — Butler is easily David to Duke’s Goliath.

“We embrace that. I think it’s a wonderful thing. You know, it makes me feel good. David won,” Bulldogs coach Brad Stevens points out.

“I think certainly Duke is Goliath. When you look at college basketball, again, they’ve set a standard for everyone else over the last, really 25-plus years. Ever since I’ve been watching basketball, Coach Krzyzewski and Duke have been one of the preeminent programs in the country. So they certainly have earned that reputation as a giant.”

This marks the fourth time in 12 seasons that the Blue Devils will tip off on the final Monday night of the NCAA Tournament with a chance to win it all. This is the program’s 10th title game appearance and the eighth under Coach K, who cut down the nets in 1991, ’92 and 2001 while losing the final in 1986, ’90, ’94 and ’99.

Still, the 33-year-old Stevens and his so-called “underdog” Bulldogs are riding a 25-game winning streak that includes recent wins over championship-winning coaches Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse.

“Obviously coach has believed in us and we believe in ourselves,” says Hayward, who has come through in the clutch throughout the Tourney, whether it meant diving for a loose ball as time expired against Murray State to advance to the Sweet 16 or blocking a potential game-winner against Michigan State in the Final Four.

“I’ve said this before. We’ve played other opponents like this. Once the ball goes up in the air, all that is going to disappear and it’s just five-on-five. We view them as another opponent, someone we’re going to play and try to beat.”

For only the second time since the field expanded to 64 in 1985, a pair of private schools will face off for a national championship. The only other time it happened, longshot Villanova took down towering favorite Georgetown for the greatest upset in NCAA title game history.

While Butler is not nearly the underdog that Villanova was, the Bulldogs will face a similar size disadvantage that the Wildcats faced against Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas. Even with center Matt Howard — who is a game-time decision after suffering an apparent concussion on Saturday — Butler will have a tough time matching up with Duke’s frontline, which includes Brian Zoubek (7’1”), Miles Plumlee (6’10”), Mason Plumlee (6’10”), Lance Thomas (6’8”) and Kyle Singler (6’8”).

“Whether it’s (6’8”) Avery (Jukes) or (6’7”) Garrett (Butcher) or (6’11”) Andrew Smith or anyone else on the team; I think they’re going to come in and do their job just like (6’8”) Matt (Howard) would do the job. We found ways to win all year,” said Hayward, who is listed at 6’8” on his official player page but 6’9” on the website roster.

“Coach is going to draw up a game plan no matter what. We’ll be ready to go. Next person will step up. It won’t faze us.”

Nothing has fazed Butler up to this point. And after all, this is still March Madness — even if the calendar says it’s April 5 — anything can happen.

Bad Rap

Coach K was the subject of a disrespectful sports page cover illustration on roughly 30,000 copies of the Friday edition of the Indianapolis Star. And the legendary coach was not happy about the way he and his program were treated by the Final Four host city’s local newspaper.

“How could a newspaper do that? That’s like somebody doodled. Actually, I thought I looked better. But it was kind of juvenile. Not ‘kind of,’ just ‘juvenile,’” Krzyzewski said during a press conference tirade.

“We have great kids who go to school, who graduate. If we’re going to be despised or hated by anybody because we go to school and we want to win, you know what, that’s your problem. Then you have a problem, because we’re going to go to school and we’re going to try to win.

“You don’t like it? Keep drawing pictures. Just keep drawing pictures. Try to do them a little bit better than that, though.”

On the end of the spectrum, a few Bulldogs — including Hayward — produced a rap that predicted, if not bragged, about making a Final Four run in their hometown of Indianapolis. Here’s a link to the song, with Hayward’s lyrics below:

Yo, yo, the name’s G-Time
Big frame, big game, call me big time
Ball hard every night and day
From the ‘Burg, I rep it in a big way

Come too close I’ll hit you with the blow-by
Straight to the rim, I’m just too high
Stay back and I’ll hit the J
Try to stop me, there’s just no way

But it’s not about me, it’s about the team
Going to the Tourney with a full head of steam
‘Chip’s real close, it’s at our back door
Get a few dubs we’ll be in the Final Four
Not stopping there, that’s not in store
Push it to the limit, we want more