Hoosier Heartbreak: Hayward's Heave Nearly Dumps Duke
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 12:56AM 
By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season
How Hoosier would it have been had Gordon Hayward's half-court heave banked in to give Butler a surprising and thrilling victory over Duke in Monday night's national championship game?
After a missed Duke free throw with 3.6 seconds left, Hayward rose up high for the rebound, dribbled three times, got a serious screen from teammate Matt Howard, dribbled once more, then launched the shot that might have changed the great sport of college basketball forever. Even though it just missed, it might have done so anyway.
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It was a great rebound by Hayward, a great screen by Howard, a great shot by Hayward and then, ultimately, a great escape by Duke.
Unlike Jimmy Chitwood's heroic game-winner in the excellent basketball movie "Hoosiers," Hayward's shot from the right side of midcourt hung high in the air, giving the 70,000+ at Lucas Oil Stadium and millions more watching on television a second to shove both arms skyward, hoping for one lucky bounce to complete the real-life version the way a largely anti-Duke America would have wanted it. But then it missed.
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"Butler really played like America's team tonight," CBS analyst and Duke graduate Seth Davis said after the game, and truer words could not have been spoken.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils, considered a heavy favorite by many experts and pretty much hated by all humans outside of Durham, N.C., won their fourth national championship, all since 1991 under future Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Some notes:
+ Don't hate Duke. I've said it many times before; I don't love Duke but I don't hate Duke. Sports are played by people we don't know, so it's a waste of your energy to let things get so far out of perspective. I know the blogosphere is a cool place to hate, but Duke is a great basketball program and the Devils deserved the national championship. Three weeks ago when the brackets were unveiled, many complained of an easy Final Four path for Duke. But Monday night the Devils had to beat a great Butler team that had beaten No. 1 Syracuse, No. 2 Kansas State and a hot Michigan State team just on Saturday. Butler wasn't just some middling team that got hot a month ago. The Bulldogs were legitimate all season.
+ Monday's game was the lowest-scoring title tilt since the North Carolina State-Houston classic in 1983. On Monday, the lead changed hands 15 times and there were five ties, according to ESPN.
+ Just two days after West Virginia coach Bob Huggins described Duke's semifinal victory as the Devils' best offensive effort of the season, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said the Devils' championship game performance "was good of a defensive effort as I've seen from them all season."
+ ESPN analyst Digger Phelps, usually annoying as he shares nothing of value, actually made a very good point during postgame coverage. Butler is stacked with workman-type role players, and Duke is loaded with experienced players. "This game sends a signal to college basketball. Forget the one-and-done guys. This game shows that coaches can go out and find quality kids and build a program with consistency." Phelps cited a few one-and-done guys like Greg Oden and Mike Conley of Ohio State, Michael Beasley of Kansas State, Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans at Memphis and of course, Kentucky's John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, among others. Lots of talent, no rings.
+ Here's a picture of an on-campus bon-fire celebration at Duke, sent out minutes after the game ended by Twitter user @vitags
+ Kyle Singler was huge Monday and definitely deserved Most Outstanding Player honors. But Butler's foul-prone Matt Howard was making a nice case for himself late. In the final two minutes, he made two layups and grabbed a crucial offensive rebound, then set that wall of a pick for Hayward's final launch. Howard was nice.
+ CBS analyst Clark Kellogg correctly called it "a worthy championship game. Duke won this game. Butler did not lose it." Added Bilas: "This is truly one of the great games and great atmospheres at a Final Four that I can remember."
+ I wasn't crazy about one thing Kellogg's play-by-play partner Jim Nantz said at one point in the second half. Nantz began a short story about how there were two Academic All-Americans playing in the game, "... and they're not on Duke." That wasn't cool.
+ Not surprisingly, Twitter users ripped the Jennifer Hudson version of "One Shining Moment." Other hot Twitter topic: many pined for CBS' Gus Johnson to be in Nantz's chair.
+ Butler coach Brad Stevens said after the game: "We just came up one possession short in a game of about 145 possessions. It's hard to stomach being on the wrong end of that ... You're at peace with (losing because) you've got a group that's given it every single thing they have."
+ Though Duke couldn't pull away like many thought it would be able to do, it stuck with its game plan and continued to give good effort, which often prevails in the long run. With about five and four minutes left, it looked like the Devils were starting to get some separation, which reminded me of Ohio State football under Jim Tressel. Sometimes the Buckeyes won't blow teams out, but once that fourth quarter starts, opposing defenses are worn out from 315-pound linemen leaning on them for three quarters, and then OSU starts to move the ball a little easier and ultimately pulls away. I thought I was starting to see that in the last five minutes from Duke, but Butler made a nice collective reach and stayed in it.
+ Coach K said about an hour after the game: "This was a classic. This was the toughest (championship) and the best one."
Butler, Duke, Mike Krzyzewski, NCAA Tournament
Reader Comments (3)
Mediocre game played by two good teams. It would have been a great matchup at the pre-season NIT, but this was the NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. This was not even in the top 20 of greatest NCAA finals games. Butler didn't make a shot in the last 8 minutes of the game and still almost won. Let's get some perspective on this. Butler had a nice run. They beat two very good basketball teams. Duke beat one, I think. We all know this Duke team probably wasn't even one of the best 7 or 8 in the country this year, but, thanks in part to a complete meltdown by the tournament committee, several teams were completely mis-seeded, causing chaos throughout the bracket.
Can't wait until that 96-team tourney. Fingers crossed for that St. Mary's-Cornell matchup in Phoenix.
I know our culture can over-do the hyperbole and just because something is fresh in our memory, there's a tendency to over-estimate the value of what's more recent. That said, I think a significant scoring drought or an overall absence of offense doesn't worsen the quality of a game. A great defensive game can be a great game as well, and I think that's what we got Monday night. I agree with you about the mis-seeding, but just like bubble teams that get left out, mis-seeding happens every year. I don't doubt that three weeks ago, it looked like Duke got its usual favoritism with its seemingly easy bracket. But it still beat, very convincingly, a West Virginia team that won the Big East tournament and eventually eliminated that high-flying Kentucky team, so there's something to be said there.
I love John Wise. That is a fact. Also a fact: Butler shot 34.5% and almost won. They scored two baskets in the final 9 minutes. Duke made one basket in the final 8 minutes…and WON!!!!!
This was like watching a mid-season Big Ten game. It was painful. The execution was poor. The defense was good. It wasn't that good. The game was close. It was not well played. If that ends up in your countdown of NCAA title games next year, I will be greatly saddened.
And, you are right that Duke handed out a first-class beat down of a good West Virigina team. However, doesn't it speak volumes about the rest of the competition when you realize that was by far (not even close) the best game Duke played all tournament? They laid an egg in the championship game and still won.
I want a t-shirt!