ODU hopes to do to Butler what Butler did
Old Dominion guard Trian Iliadis, runs to teammate Ben Finney (35) as they celebrate winning 70-65 over Virginia Commonwealth. (March 7, 2011) Credit: AP
WASHINGTON -- Butler's uprising against the tyranny of NCAA power conferences last year might be enough to give the likes of Old Dominion hope in this year's tournament. If, of course, Old Dominion can get past Butler in Thursday's Southeast Regional game here.
Old Dominion coach Blain Taylor could stress the old if-they-can, we-can angle. Butler came within a basket of the ultimate basketball social climb, losing by two to Duke in the 2010 title game, and ninth-seeded Old Dominion is a member of that same shrinking middle class of Division I teams as Butler.
"I think our kids look around and hear it from enough different angles," Taylor said, "that a non-BCS school can maybe jump on a storybook ride. Anybody that's not a BCS school watched , and watched George Mason's run with an adventurous nature."
Still, as motivation, "I haven't used that, as such," Taylor said. "And I'm probably better off, because we've got to play them now."
Butler, meanwhile, insists it is an equal. "One of the things we never wanted to say last year," Butler coach Brad Stevens said, "was that we were an underdog or that we were a mid-major or whatever they want to call you from a resource standpoint. We're a basketball team with some pride and want to compete at the highest level, and these guys have given us a chance to do that again."
Having lost three regulars from last year's national runner-up -- most prominently Gordon Hayward to the Utah Jazz -- eighth-seeded Butler (23-9) experienced rocky midseason results but won its last nine games, a Horizon League title and fifth straight trip to the tournament.
Senior guard Zach Hahn judged that Butler "has a bigger target on our back" because of last season. But as far as expectations, "We try to focus on the task in front of us," Stevens said. "I do think that [the players] know how to use the remote and how to access the Internet, so I think certainly they see when people pick against them and all those things."
The remote and Internet informed Butler that CAA champion Old Dominion (27-6) leads the nation in rebounding. And Taylor reminded that, "The old Indiana boys state tournament, the kind of stuff you make movies out of, that's what this tournament can become at times."
Beware the restive mid-majors.
