What You Know About Them Dawgs?

"Houston here we come!"

Last year we all said that the stars and the moon aligned perfectly and it was a miracle that the Butler Bull Dawgs were in the Final Four.  It'll never happen again so enjoy it now, take it all in because it's a once in a lifetime experience. We'll... they're at it again! The stars and the moon are either playing tricks on us or Butler is just the real deal. I'm putting money on the fact that it's the latter of the two. Butler is back in the Final Foul for the second straight year!!

Shelvin Mack scored 27 points, including five in overtime, and Butler reached the Final Four for the second year in a row with a 74-71 victory over Florida on Saturday.


"This is a huge deal," said Zach Hahn, whose two 3-pointers helped Butler stay close in the first half. "I don't know that any other mid-major has ever done this. It's hardly happened once, let alone twice. It's an unbelievable feeling."


Butler, the Horizon League champ, has vanquished three higher seeds from major conferences -- top-seeded Pittsburgh, fourth-seeded Wisconsin and now second-seeded Florida -- in succession. Those big wins came after Howard tipped in a winner in the final seconds against Old Dominion. This game had another frantic finish.


"We just kind of stayed together, stayed the course, figured it out, and just played resiliently," Butler coach Brad Stevens. "I'm incredibly proud of these guys. They carried their coach in a big way. ... Our players did a great job, and [they are] just a special group. We're really lucky that they're Butler Bulldogs."

Give Brad Stevens all of the credit in the world. He's done an outstanding job making Butler a legitimate basketball ball threat. They've always been good but now the entire country is checking for them.  I said after they beat Pitt that you can't bet against them the whole way out now. Once they got started anything could happen. I sure wasn't expecting them to be back in the Final Four at all. We'll.. nobody did.

The small private liberal arts university of 4,400 students just seven miles north of downtown Indianapolis has become a basketball powerhouse under the leadership of Brad Stevens. You've got to give him all of the credit for keeping these kids focused. Think about what a difficult job that has been for him. They made it to the championship game year and just missed winning the title off of a last second shot.

"This ain't nothing, we got this!"

Remember he's dealing with 18-22 year olds that aren't accustomed to getting this type of attention. They're at Butler for crying out loud. They weren't the McDonald's All-Americans that are used to having camera's in their faces, people patting them on the backs and girls chasing them around all of the time. These kids are for the most part, good players, that just wanted to keep playing basketball while in college. Now they're "rockstars" on campus and around town. It takes a lot of coaching to keep them from buying into the hype and staying the course. Big props to Brad Stevens and the Butler Bull Dawgs!!

Now when the season's over let Butler know that if they want to keep you Brad, they've got to get you up to market value on that salary. Merchandise sales are up, enrollments up, ticket sales are up  and times up for playing with your money. You're under paid and if they appreciate you so much they've got to open up.

Lastly, I want to say to all of the people that have suddenly started pulling for the Dawgs don't pull a hamstring jumping on the band wagon this week. They can nag you for several weeks. I know because I pulled one last year. Go Dawgs!

Jay Graves
jaygraves@thejaygravesreport.com
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport
Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.