Butler ‘s greatest basketball accomplishment will be a homecoming.
The Bulldogs beat Kansas State 63-56 on Saturday in the West Regional final, advancing to the Final Four for the first time in school history.
Now, it gets better.
The Final Four will be held in Indianapolis, the city Butler calls home.
The last time a team got to play in the Final Four in its home city was 1972 when UCLA won the national championship in the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The Bruins won the sixth of their record seven straight national titles with an 81-76 victory over Florida State.
Butler plays its home games in Hinkle Fieldhouse, the gym where scenes from the movie “Hoosiers” were shot, while the Final Four will be held in the building the NFL’s Colts call home, Lucas Oil Stadium.
Butler and the Horizon League are the hosts for the Final Four, meaning there won’t be much down time from the celebration of Saturday’s victory until Final Four events get under way starting Thursday.
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ON THE HORIZON: Butler’s run to the Final Four did wonders for the Horizon League’s record in NCAA tournament play.
The wins over UTEP, Murray State, top-seeded Syracuse and second-seeded Kansas State were one-fifth of the league’s all-time total. Entering this tournament, Horizon League teams had a record of 20-36. Now it’s 24-36, and Butler has accounted for half the wins.
The conference was formed in 1979 as the Midwestern City Conference with a membership of Butler; Evansville; Loyola, Chicago; Oklahoma City; Oral Roberts and Xavier. It changed its name to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1985, four years after its champion received its first automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
The name was changed to the Horizon League in 2001.
The other current members are Wright State; Wisconsin-Green Bay; Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Cleveland State; Valparaiso; Detroit; Loyola, Chicago; Illinois-Chicago and Youngstown State.
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NEW GUYS: The last school to make its first appearance in the Final Four was George Mason in 2006.
The Patriots, who advanced as a No. 11 seed, lost to eventual national champion Florida 73-58 in the semifinals in Indianapolis, but that game was played in the RCA Dome, the former home of the NFL’s Colts.
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DECEIVING STAT: Coaches and commentators always wail about turnovers and how they can do in even the best of teams.
Butler had 20 turnovers against Kansas State and the Bulldogs still managed a 63-56 victory to advance to the Final Four.
How out of character was it for the Bulldogs to make that many mistakes? In their three previous NCAA tournament wins they had a total of 23 turnovers, with the 10 against UTEP in the first round the most in one game until the regional final.
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