For the Duke Blue Devils, good things don't come in threes. They come in fours.
Celebrating its first title since 2001, No. 1 seed Duke is on top of college basketball's infinity, yet again.
Well, kinda.
Duke has the title. But its counterpart in the NCAA championship game has the heart strings. And the lifelong recollections.
Butler captivated. Those pesky Bulldogs from Indianapolis lost. By two points.
Two measly, contemptuous points.
At the end of the evening, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith, and Brian Zoubek raised the hardware, while the hometown boys from Butler U. had the short drive home to contemplate "what if?" scenarios for the rest of their lives.
Therein lies the beauty of the NCAA tournament.
Sometimes, the loser is the winner. Sometimes, the winner is the loser.
Ask any Butler player, coach or fan, they'd much rather take the most unforeseeable national title run in collegiate history than the pity party.
Nobody likes a pity party, let alone a team a-few-inches-too-high-off-the-backboard.
What if, right?
If that's the way you proceed to view the world you live in. Those who watched the 2010 NCAA tournament saw a small liberal arts school from Indianapolis take each and every opponent that came along and provide a 40-minute noogie.
The trendy double-digit seed in the first round? UTEP was supposed to have too much athleticism and power down low for Butler.
All Butler did was sink 13 three-pointers and leave the Miners headed back to El Paso, Texas with all that burnt orange as its only solemn company.
Butler barely survived Murray State, thanks to Gordon Hayward's heady and treacherous gamble to strip a Racer with the game under 10 ticks left.
Syracuse. Yada.
Kansas State. Yada.
Michigan State. Yada.
Coming into Monday's national title game, the Bulldogs had won 25 straight games. Twenty-five straight Ws. Not even Wes Johnson, Andy Rautins, and Scoop Jardine had an answer for Butler's kryptonite defense.
Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente were forced into early retirement for the time being.
And for all the screaming, clawing, pissing, moaning, hugging, and loving Tom Izzo could do, Sparta had no answer for Butler.
Perfection set in motion, right? Wasn't this the way things are supposed to play out?
Butler knocking off the much-scorned national powerhouse Duke to top the improbable mountain on high.
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