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Posted by Mark Barnes Nov 26, 2006 |
They can't be called Cinderella any longer.
North Carolina, Indiana, Gonzaga, Notre Dame and Tennessee. These five teams competed in the 2006-2007 NCAA pre-season NIT. None of them won the tournament.
Instead the upstart Butler Bulldogs, of the Horizon League, took home the trophy and are off to a perfect 7-0 start.
Not to pat ourselves on the back, but we're not surprised. We did, after all, have the Buldogs on our pre-season Cinderella Watch List. To say we figured Butler would leap off the list and directly into the NCAA top 20, thouh, would be going too far.
We knew Butler had great guard play with NIT MVP A.J. Graves and athletic transfer Mike Green. We even knew the Bulldogs were one of the most selfish defensive teams in the NCAA.
What surprised us, as Butler knocked off Notre Dame, Indiana, Tennessee and Gonzaga, was the amazing balanced scoring attack the Bulldogs bring every night, along with uncanny team discipline and scary good shooting (82% from the free throw line and 37% from the 3-point arc).
So, the Butler Bulldogs are certainly no longer a surprise as an NCAA power -- their RPI ranking is now number 1.
The Butler Bulldogs, it would seem, have stepped out of Cinderella's slipper.