First Piece of Four

Brad Stevens schools Billy Donovan: Butler absolutely steals a Final Four berthto Houston

Brad Stevens is the best coach in America. That's the reason Butler is back inthe Final Four.
When Butler needed a basket most, Stevens called precise plays that got the ballto players like Matt Howard in position to do something.

Butler has about as much business being in another Final Four as Bradley Cooper does of winning an Oscar.

Yet, the Bulldogs are the first team to punch a ticket to Houston, thanks to the best coach in college basketball. That would be Brad Stevens, whose work with this flawed, often unsightly Butler team should be immediately sent to Springfield, Mass.

Butler wasn't really an underdog when it made that run to the national championship game last March. Anyone who truly followed college basketball at all knew that. Those Bulldogs were stacked. They had a Top 10 NBA Draft pick (forward Gordon Hayward) and a ton of very good players.

This year's version of the Bulldogs? Not so much.

Mostly, what pushed Butler to Houston is Stevens. This was never more evident than in Saturday's Southeast Regional final when Florida coach Billy Donovan let the boy wonder 11 years his junior X and O him to elimination. You only have to look at the good shots the Bulldogs got in the game's tightest moments and the wild heaves the Gators settled for in their most tense possessions to explain Butler's 74-71 overtime win.

When Butler needed a shot down one late in regulation, it worked the ball to Matt Howard, who drew a foul. After Howard made one of two free throws to knot the game, Florida had the chance to win the game, to win its way to Houston. Donovan had called timeout before Howard stepped to the free-throw line, setting up a play for Florida's last shot.

How did that shot play out?

Gators junior guard Erving Walker dribbled out almost all the clock before firing up a 24 footer at the buzzer that had no chance. Walker — who finished 1-for-10 from the field (in other words, not exactly the guy you want shooting with your season on the line) — showed no indication that Florida had anything else planned besides a bleed down of the clock and the hope-against-hope fire up of a bad shot by a cold player.

Once Shelvin Mack gave Butler a 72-70 lead in OT, Donovan and Florida once again settled for an ill-conceived and worst-executed prayer. This time, Gators guard Kenny Boynton forced up a 26 footer with plenty of time left on the clock.

Donovan has the much more talented team and he still cannot get his guys a good shot when it matters most? Forget the fact that Florida was in complete control of the game for most of the second half before seizing up late and letting Butler rip off a 13-4 run. That can happen. But the inability to execute down the stretch, to even get good shots — especially contrasted with the precise plays Stevens had Butler running — is a glaring indictment.

Yes, Butler benefitted from one of the worst calls in NCAA Tournament history to beat Pittsburgh (that game should have gone to overtime). But Stevens' coaching still put them in position to win the game. He's done it all tournament, pushing his team along with the most effective sets in college basketball.

You're looking at the best coach in America. And one on the Florida sideline who should be ashamed — national championship rings regardless.

"These kids are laying it all on line on both sides," the always-composed Gus Johnson screamed into the microphone during the overtime. "These kids want to get to Houston."

Yes, both Butler and Florida's players fought with everything they had. But only one of their coaches gave his guys a real shot.

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Beyond the Boxscore

Houston in line to get more Final Fours after 2016: NCAA officials expect it tobecome a regular

The success of Bracket Town meant almost as much to the NCAA as the success atReliant Stadium.
Photo by Bruce Bennett
NCAA official Greg Shaheen praised Houston's Final Four efforts.
Kemba Walker wasn't the only one who flew high at this Final Four.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

When even NCAA officials are making jokes about the lowest-scoring NCAA Championship Game since 1949, you know they had a good time in Houston.

That's what happens in the Final Four wrap-up press conference Tuesday. Greg Shaheen — the highest-ranking NCAA official in the room — opens his portion with a crack about the offensive woes Monday night.

Shaheen notes that if more people had the motor shown by Houston Final Four Local Organizing Committee interim executive director Doug Hall then "we might have had a game last night where both teams scored 60 points."

"You were on overdrive," Shaheen says to Hall.

Yes, there is a whole lot of love in the room when the Houston LOC and the NCAA meet for the last time before this 2011 Final Four becomes part of the record books — and thoughts begin to slowly turn to the 2016 Final Four that will be held in Houston and the 2015 regional at Reliant Stadium before that.

It does not figure to end in 2016 though. Shaheen — the NCAA's interim executive vice president of championships and alliances — tells CutureMap he expects there will be even more Final Fours in Houston in the future.

"I don't see any reason why Houston wouldn't become a regular part of our rotation," Shaheen says.

Shaheen would be the first to say that the NCAA's Basketball Committee will make the final call like usual on future sites, but he says the committee is thrilled with Houston's performance.

"This is what a showcase event should look like," Shaheen says of a Houston event that set the Final Four record for total attendance (145,747 at the two nights of games) and also drew an estimated 140,000 to the Big Dance Concert Series (the concert figure is based on an "approximation" of the number of people who came through Discovery Green during all three concerts that lasted several hours each) and another 49,000 to Bracket Town at the George R. Brown Convention Center. "This is what a national championship should feel like.

"It should be exhausting the next morning and be a seamless effort."

Later Shaheen quips, "UConn is not the only winner here."

Instead, Texas might be the biggest winner of all. For the Lone Star State has emerged as the NCAA's big event darling. Texas will host three Final Fours in a six-year stretch (Houston in 2011 and 2016, Dallas in 2014). And that type of dominance is not expected to end anytime soon either.

"In the modern era, for both the men's and women's championships, I don't know that any state has emerged like Texas," Shaheen says. "And I think you have to include San Antonio (host of the 1998, 2004 and 2008 Final Fours) in that equation as well. There are a lot of things Texas offers the championships that are unique."

Standing off to the side in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency — which served as the headquarters for the coaches convention during Final Four week, housing all the big names who weren't coaching in the games — Robert Dale Morgan is sure of what makes Houston such a lure.

Morgan, the president and executive director of the 2011 Houston Final Four LOC, held a similar position for Houston's 2004 Super Bowl and many credit his vision with helping the city see its big sports event potential, with a Super Bowl, Major League Baseball All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Game, Major League Soccer All-Star Game and now a Final Four all having been held here since 2004. Not that Morgan wants that recognition.

He chooses to sit in the crowd rather than on the stage at the wrap-up press conference. He probably could have blended in to, wearing a Houston Final Four hat with his suit, if so many people on the stage didn't point him out. Bob Beauchamp, chairman of the Houston Final Four LOC, calls Morgan, "the best in the business."

"Having six million people who care," Morgan says in explaining how Houston's positioned itself as the host city with the most. "Having a dozen Fortune 500 companies. And oh by the way, we have really great weather 300 days out of the year."

Trash Talk Between Friends

Houston hands off the Final Four to New Orleans, next year's host. The transition is a bit of intentional symbolism by the NCAA which wants to recognize how closely the two cities are linked and the Bayou City's role in helping after Hurricane Katrina.

This will be the fifth Final Four that New Orleans has hosted and the city's LOC executive director John Koerner can't help but point out to Houston, the new city in "the rotation," how great every one of the NCAA Championship Games held in the Big Easy has been.

"New Orleans has hosted some of the most memorable finals ever," Koerner says. "We had Michael Jordan's shot, Keith Smart's shot, Chris Webber's infamous timeout and Hakim Warrick's block at the buzzer."

And from its first Final Four, Houston has? Well, a whole lot of clangs — and Butler's record-low 18.8 percent shooting.

Not that anyone in the NCAA is holding it against the Bayou City. The organization credentialed 1,387 media members for this Final Four, loved the visibility brought about by having it in one of the America's biggest cities. Even if you have to wonder how much everyone was into it locally. The TV rating in Houston for the unsightly Butler-UConn national championship game only ranked 30th out of the 56 major media markets.

Shaheen's not dwelling on that. Instead, he's sticking around Houston to take in more of the city without the pressures of the mega event.

"I don't have a flight home," Shaheen says, knowing that Southwest Airlines' grounded jets have made it much harder than usual to land one last minute. "So I'll be staying here two, three, four, five more days. I may be looking to get an apartment and just become a resident."

Shaheen laughs. Who says NCAA suits don't have a sense of humor?

When they are happily in Houston, they sure do.