That was a heck of a game

Except for Duke winning, it's everything you could ask for in a Tournament Final.

In the end, Butler missed too many layups, and gave up 6 cheap points on inbounds plays to Duke. That was the difference in the game. Duke's defense took the 3 pointer out of Butler's arsenal for the second half.

I thought Stevens erred badly in leaving Howard in towards the end on offense, as Butler had such success spreading the floor with Jukes and driving. But aside from Hayward, Howard was Butler's only offense for the last 6 minutes, which shows why he's the darling coach of the country and I'm a no-name with a blog.

Duke played 2 outstanding defensive games in the Final Four. They completely shut down West Virginia and kept Butler from making any runs whatsoever in the final. In the end, Duke's defense won the day.

Luckily for Duke, they didn't have to bring any sort of A-game until they reached the Final Four. Purdue was a shell of itself and Baylor was too green to pose a real threat. Villanova might have been a threat, if they had bothered to show up for the tournament at all. I don't understand how the #3 overall seed ended up with the easiest road to the Final Four, all I can say is "It's good to be the Duke".

You cannot say enough about Butler's run. There were at least 4 points in the second half where it looked like Duke would blow things wide open, but every time Butler got the stops they needed to claw their way back in. They had their shot with 30 seconds left, the ball, and down 1, but Hayward was just off on his floater. if you had offered them that chance before the game they would have taken it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, the 2nd timeout they had to burn to get the ball inbounds cost them after Zoubeck's intentional miss with 3.6 seconds left. Hayward's heave was closer than it had any right to be, but in the end, Butler could not hold Duke under 60, and points 60 and 61 were enough for Duke to win their 4th national championship.

Cue the smarmy American Express card commericals for Coach K