Sam Calvert
Every year in the NCAA tournament, there seems to be a "Cinderella story." Teams like Davidson College, Western Kentucky University and Siena College give viewers a reason to get excited and draws non-basketball fans to the television. This year, the media darling has been Butler University, and it doesn't hurt that the school's campus happens to be in Indianapolis -- the site of the Final Four.
The city has embraced the team, flying flags along the streets and placing signs in store windows. Billboards and local marquees show support for the hometown Bulldogs. The Butler bookstore has been picked clean, everyone showing up to buy a part of the team's magical run.
The Butler students had the largest student turn-out for the games on Saturday, and their energy was infectious. There was one student whose shirt caught my eye. On the front, it just said "Butler Basketball," but on the back, it read, "We are not Cinderella." This got me thinking about Butler.
How did the Bulldogs suddenly become the underdog? They were seeded exactly the same as Michigan State University. Yes, Tom Izzo and his team had been to the Final Four before, but based solely on this season, the two teams were fairly equal. Butler hadn't lost a game in the last 24 (now 25 after their Michigan State win). How does a 24-win streak equal underdog?
When I think of a Cinderella team, I think of a 12 seed triumphantly beating a 2 seed. Butler doesn't fit the bill. And while it's romantic to think of Butler as the David, slaying Goliath, it's not fair to a team that's played as well as they have all season. The Butler Bulldogs have played fantastic basketball from November to April, with just four losses, and they deserve to be thought of as a legitimate team, not some Cinderella story.
So as Butler takes the court tomorrow night against Duke University and the media outlets are all reminding us of the "magical run" that brought the Bulldogs to the championship game, I'll just look to the Butler section and an entire student body reminding me of one simple sentence: "We are not Cinderella"