Duke Defeats Butler to Win 2010 NCAA National Championship

Even winding down to the last seconds, the National Championship game between Duke and Butler felt eerily like the plot to Hoosiers. In Hoosiers, the small time school (Butler) goes up against a much larger and heavily favored school (Duke) and wins. In what may have been the most exciting game of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, Butler saw a desperation three point shot at the buzzer come within inches of winning the game. In the end, however, Duke beat Butler 61-59 and won the 2010 National Championship.

(In an interesting side note, although I once again did not correctly predict the winner of this game, I did predict the final score correctly. I guess that's a start in the right direction.)

How Duke Beat Butler

Duke managed to pull out a squeaker in the National Championship against Butler by shooting much better than the Bulldogs (44% to 34%) while also winning the rebound battle, 36-32. Although the Blue Devils led for almost the entire game, they never had a lead greater than six points, and Butler often seemed on the verge of making a run that never materialized.

Butler stayed in the game due to their trademark defense, which had kept every other team in the tournament to under sixty points. Although Duke only scored 61 points, it was enough to beat out an anemic Butler offense that went over seven straight minutes in the second half without making a field goal.

Although Duke players often looked frustrated by Butler's defense, they still managed to shoot better than many of the other teams that have faced the Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament. The "big three" of Singler, Scheyer and Smith for the Duke Blue Devils combined for 47 points, although they only shot a combined 37.5% from the field.

Looking at the box score, it would seem that Duke played tremendous defense as well. Although Duke's defense was by no means bad, Butler missed quite a few open shots in the first half, and were never able to generate the offense necessary to take the lead from the Blue Devils.

Looking Forward to 2011

Now that Duke has won the 2010 National Championship, it's time to look forward to the 2011 season. The Blue Devils have four seniors on their squad, including starters Jon Scheyer and Brian Zoubek. Coach Mike Krzyzewski always has his teams ready to compete, and even with these losses, Duke should be a heavy favorite to repeat as ACC champions due to the lack of competition found in the league this year.

Butler, meanwhile, only has three seniors on the current team, and only Willie Veasley contributed significantly to the 2010 squad. Leaders Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward are only sophomores, and forward Matt Howard is a junior. With all presumably returning for the 2011 season, Butler should be not only early favorites to win the Horizon League again, but also favorites to make a deep run in the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

2011 Prediction: Duke gets a three seed and gets eliminated in the Elite Eight; Butler gets a four seed and is eliminated in the Final Four.

Source(s):

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=300950150

Butler Roster

Duke Roster