Butler, and the Hoosiers/Milan story it echoes, is a great story. The Bulldogs are returning to the NCAA championship game. This year, instead of Duke, they’ll be competing against Connecticut.
One of the things that makes Butler such a great story is that it’s easily converted into a morality tale. Who knows what the actual reality is, but from the outside, Butler looks like everything we like — the humble underdog that gets to the top through pluck and hard work, overcoming more talented (but, because they lost, presumably less virtuous) opponents. It helps, this year, that the other side of the bracket gives us relatively cartoonish villains. It’s not too hard to imagine Kentucky’s Calipari or UConn’s Calhoun telling one of their blue chip bully boys to “sweep the leg, Johnny.”
It’s also a nice touch that Butler is returning after losing last year — gives it a nice “Rocky” flavor to it (as well as being reminiscent of the original Milan story). Maybe they’ll give us a satisfying ending to the story by winning it all on Monday.
We generally want to believe that hard work is a more important ingredient for success than money, talent, or luck.
Expect another “Hoosiers” movie featuring the Bulldogs if they pull off a win.
Turn off the flat screen TV, plug in the vintage Philco radio, pop some corn, open a 6 oz glass bottle of coke and witness history tonight.
Butler is the only remaining remnant of what was once known as “Hoosier Hysteria”. This old man would like to see what Indiana basketball was all about, just one last time.
“………..and David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone….”