Sunday, April 4, 2010

"I know everything there is to know about the greatest game ever invented."

Pat Forde with a follow up on last week's column, in which he steals my closing line from the post below. I'm willing to forgive it, though, because as usual, Forde has hit the nail on the head in terms of the historic nature of what will be one of the most compelling championship games ever:
Well, of course. This is the only way it could end.

The most dramatic, theatric and in some ways therapeutic NCAA tournament in many years -- maybe ever -- has to come down to this. By all that is hoops holy, it has to end with an overdog-underdog matchup of epic proportion.

Duke versus Butler for the national championship. C'mon. This is better than the movies -- and you know which movie I'm referring to.

. . .

From a program-imbalance standpoint, 1979 comes to mind. Indiana State of the Missouri Valley Conference against Michigan State of the Big Ten. But the Sycamores had Larry Bird and were an undefeated No. 1 seed. The Spartans, with Magic Johnson, were a six-loss No. 2 seed.

So feel free to flip back, back, back through the record books and find the contrast that strikes you best. Texas Western-Kentucky, 1966? Loyola Chicago-Cincinnati, 1963? Knock yourself out.

All I know is that this gives us a lot to talk about between now and 9 p.m. ET on Monday. And once the game starts, the Blue Devils officially are on notice:

Don't get caught watching the paint dry.
Certainly it is hard to beat Texas Western - Kentucky, which had superpower-underdog implications that went well beyond the basketball court. But Butler versus Duke in Indianapolis is nonetheless one of the greatest games that anyone, Shooter Flatch included, could invent for the First Monday Night in April. I can't wait to see how the script ends.

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