Butler fans revel in home city NCAA championship

INDIANAPOLIS - Thousands of Butler basketball fans rallied in downtown Indianapolis Monday, hours before their beloved hometown Bulldogs faced Duke in the NCAA men's basketball championship game.

The pep rally was held at Monument Circle, the same location where fans converged after the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl in 2007. Politicians campaigned, fans wore T-shirts, some blue, some white, some gray. Many stood next to men in suits, who came out during their lunch breaks to soak in a few minutes of the experience.

"Did I think they'd make a good run? Yes," said Dave Inman, a 2007 Butler graduate. "Sweet 16 for sure, Elite Eight maybe. National championship? No way."

A few miles away, the normally quiet campus was swamped by fans enchanted by the team's surprising run to the title game.

"We're not really used to it," sophomore Melissa Florit said while standing among the masses at the campus bookstore. "The 4,500 of us aren't used to having 4,500 more of us here. Some don't like the publicity, with us being a small, family oriented campus.

"Everyone's here, cameras are everywhere. But it's good that people don't have to ask me, 'What's Butler?' Not anymore."

The Bulldogs got to the championship by putting together a 25-game winning streak that captured the nation's attention. With two-thirds of the roster coming from Indiana, many likened them to the high school team from tiny Milan that won the Indiana state basketball championship in 1954 against a much bigger school.