Again with the Talking Heads

[Truth Detector]

I've watched all week the talking heads wondering why people hate Duke. Usually it's written off as jealousy.

Is there any possibility that it has something to do with Duke getting all of the calls?

Nah...

[9rows]

speaking of talking fish wraps

any one know how many miles it is from butler campus to lucas oil stadium?

....or how old coach stevens is?

[9rows]

....or if hayward has a twin sister who is also an athlete at butler?

[Truth Detector]

....or if hayward has a twin sister who is also an athlete at butler?

Yeah, but she's hot.

[8-0-1]

Duke got the gift seed of the tourney as well as the bracket

Singler pushes off with his off arm while driving. Totally a foul every time he drive and thru three games - never called.

[Truth Detector]

Duke plays by the Jordan Rules.

[RacerX]

cbs needed duke to win so it would get better ratings now and for next years acc tv games, and Butler never returns to network tv agian till sometime next century! The ref's are bad in these types of games.

[8-0-1]

Wow Dan Guerrero gets to present the trophy to the team he'd already gifted a dream bracket ( I say that as a Boiler that wow what an easy bracket). Duke was 3rd in the final rankings and got that gift. Meanwhile 8th ranked Butler draws a 5 seed and a 1st round game against the 25th ranked 12 seed.

Nice Job Dan and the boys

[Coyote]

It was a more evenly officiated game than the Butler semifinal. Tough loss though. Almost had it.
.
Duke got a gift draw, but at least played up to a high seed. Butler got an unfair draw, and proved it while overcoming it.
.

[Roadster Fan]

It was a more evenly officiated game than the Butler semifinal. Tough loss though. Almost had it.
.

Agreed/

[Ren Butler]

I can respect what Duke can do. Great coaching, great players (except Zoubek, who is a fraud).

Still, they do get more calls for them than against them. I think it's impossible to watch their last four games and think anything different.

[Coyote]

Someday I'm going to get over the officiating in the Duke-Indiana tourney game back in '92. Not yet though. They still get the calls. I honestly felt tonight was far less than normal. I thought it was pretty even with at most a small tilt toward Duke.

[jkg]

Someday I'm going to get over the officiating in the Duke-Indiana tourney game back in '92.

I will get over that the day my brain stops operating properly. It's still the only time in my life I thought an official in a major sporting event (Ted Valentine) was intentionally attempting to change the outcome of a game. Tom Donaghy was never that gross about it, and at least he profited from it.

I agree that tonight's game wasn't noticeably slanted toward either team though.

[kikigirl]

I don't have any problems with Duke or Coach K.
UNC fans, of course, hate Duke.
And "Duke" is still a 4-letter word to a lot of Kentucky fans
(you want to raise the blood pressure of a UK fan, just say 2 words "Christian Laetner" )

Butler has LOT to be proud of and probably had more people rooting for them than for Duke in this country

[jabba19]

I will get over that the day my brain stops operating properly. It's still the only time in my life I thought an official in a major sporting event (Ted Valentine) was intentionally attempting to change the outcome of a game. Tom Donaghy was never that gross about it, and at least he profited from it.

I agree that tonight's game wasn't noticeably slanted toward either team though.

Ted Valentine was calling tonight's championship game. He did a nice job.

[Coyote]

Coach K probably never told him he sucked, unlike Bobby Knight. Knight never got an even deal out of him after that, with the worst example being the Duke-IU '92 game.

There's a lot of fanbases who don't trust Valentine. He's made several infamous calls in big games over the years that looked quite wrong. Yet he continues to get some big games. So when he can overcome his biases he must be decent.

[indysteve]

I watched the game at Hinkle and stayed until the team returned. On the drive home, I was listening to Jason Smith on ESPN Radio. Believe it or not, he said Butler got away with murder and Duke had to play against both Butler and the referees. He said, "Butler definitely had some home cookin' going on with the officiating." What a tool! He said some nice things about Butler otherwise, but he was just clueless about the way the game was called by the referees.

Looks like Vitale was right. There was NO WAY Butler could hold mighty Duke under 60 points. I usually like Vitale more than most people do, because I like his passion for the game. But to him, and to all the other so-called basketball experts who picked Butler to lose in every round, and told us that Duke would thump the Bulldogs in the title game, I would say this: if I were your boss, I would fire every one of you and hire someone to be a basketball analyst that actually knows what he's talking about. You guys embarrassed yourselves during this tournament with your failure to grasp one very clear fact, even in the face of ever-increasing evidence: Butler is a championship-caliber basketball team, and they proved it very forcefully tonight.

[comfortably numb]

My dad was well pleased. He loves it when his team wins in close games.
I thought Duke would finally get 7 points up but Butler kept denying them.
One of the best games ever played.

[rantanamo]

I watched the game at Hinkle and stayed until the team returned. On the drive home, I was listening to Jason Smith on ESPN Radio. Believe it or not, he said Butler got away with murder and Duke had to play against both Butler and the referees. He said, "Butler definitely had some home cookin' going on with the officiating." What a tool! He said some nice things about Butler otherwise, but he was just clueless about the way the game was called by the referees.

As much as it pains me, I have to agree with Jason Smith. Butler was beating the crap out of Duke physically. I especially hate Big Z, but he did take a beating and the refs seemed to be spotty on what they would call on Butler. Butler's guards were physical as well on defense. Of course that's probably not a popular opinion here, but that's fine. Butler got away with a lot.

[Sea Fury]

I've watched all week the talking heads wondering why people hate Duke.

And you may ask yourself, "Well...HOW DID I GET HERE?"

[turnrightgoleft]

I watched the game at Hinkle and stayed until the team returned. On the drive home, I was listening to Jason Smith on ESPN Radio. Believe it or not, he said Butler got away with murder and Duke had to play against both Butler and the referees. He said, "Butler definitely had some home cookin' going on with the officiating." What a tool! He said some nice things about Butler otherwise, but he was just clueless about the way the game was called by the referees.

Looks like Vitale was right. There was NO WAY Butler could hold mighty Duke under 60 points. I usually like Vitale more than most people do, because I like his passion for the game. But to him, and to all the other so-called basketball experts who picked Butler to lose in every round, and told us that Duke would thump the Bulldogs in the title game, I would say this: if I were your boss, I would fire every one of you and hire someone to be a basketball analyst that actually knows what he's talking about. You guys embarrassed yourselves during this tournament with your failure to grasp one very clear fact, even in the face of ever-increasing evidence: Butler is a championship-caliber basketball team, and they proved it very forcefully tonight.

Very well said.

I don't know how anybody could argue the fact that Butler was either the best team in the country during this tournament, or the second best. They had an extremely tough row to hoe, and it came down to the very end.

Some of these experts make you think they want college basketball to go to a bowl system, where the power conference play each other for a game or two.

I'd like to put Bilas, Vitale, and several of the other "experts" in a job not related to college basketball. Even Kellogg was driving me crazy. When Zoubeck absolutely grabbed Howard and threw him to the ground, Kellogg says "little bit of acting there". WHAT???

Butler was awesome, and their coach may go down in history as one of the best ever.

[Clefo]

I've watched all week the talking heads wondering why people hate Duke. Usually it's written off as jealousy.

Is there any possibility that it has something to do with Duke getting all of the calls?

Nah...

I'm still bitter about Jason Williams hopping on Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner's backs during the Duke-Arizona championship game in 2001.

Funny how Duke always ruins sentimental favorites (Hometown mid major underdog now opposed to team rallying behind coach whose wife just passed away then)

[PHJIndy]

As much as it pains me, I have to agree with Jason Smith. Butler was beating the crap out of Duke physically. I especially hate Big Z, but he did take a beating and the refs seemed to be spotty on what they would call on Butler. Butler's guards were physical as well on defense. Of course that's probably not a popular opinion here, but that's fine. Butler got away with a lot.

You and Jason Smith must be due for an eye exam.
The Big Zoo could have been whistled for at least a dozen fouls and another dozen or so 3 second violations.

[Clefo]

The Big Zoo could have been whistled for at least a dozen fouls and another dozen or so 3 second violations.

It was always my experience watching games and being a second string shooting guard in high school that three-seconds were never really called on anyone unless they were there for, oh, five or six seconds.

[PHJIndy]

It was always my experience watching games and being a second string shooting guard in high school that three-seconds were never really called on anyone unless they were there for, oh, five or six seconds.

How about 10 seconds or sometimes as long as the Dookies had the ball.