Since I’m posting this on Monday at 6 PM, we don’t yet know which team is this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion. But we do know that, once again, Butler has defied the odds and made it all the way to the final game. Will it be another heartbreaking, 2-point loss for the Bulldogs, or will they win it all this year? Tune in tonight to find out.
In the meantime, though, check out this article by Liz Clarke from Sunday’s Washington Post. My Weekend Words from last Friday referenced the “Butler Way”. Now that Butler is in the NCAA finals for the second consecutive year, the Post has published another article outlining what the Butler Way is and what it means to the players. Here’s an excerpt:
HOUSTON — The Connecticut Huskies will take the court at Reliant Stadium for Monday’s NCAA championship game with a Hall of Fame coach in Jim Calhoun, a surefire first-round NBA draft pick in Kemba Walker and two national titles.
The Butler Bulldogs, champion of underdogs everywhere, will counter with something more abstract: a defining principle.
It’s called “the Butler Way,” and it has served as the mission statement for the basketball team that has been the pride of the small university in Indianapolis for decades — informing the type of players Butler recruits, the way the Bulldogs practice and interact on and off the court and, ultimately, the way they play the game.
Monday, that guiding principle may prove as valuable against the favored Huskies as any single player on Butler’s roster.
-Ro