Go Blue!

For those of you just joining the Butler bandwagon, welcome aboard. Many of us have been Butler fans for quite a while, but it is definitely nice to have our ranks swelling for the past couple of weeks.

All of us at LomHenn.com would like to say,

"GO BULLDOGS!"

I would love to say that we knew this would happen, but this is almost beyond comprehension at this point. It is going to be a nerve-wracking evening, but this is going to be a night to remember for all Butler fans and alumni.

Nothing like a good ol' David versus Goliath battle for the championship. It is scary to think that the last time a team that was not from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 or SEC won the tournament was 1966. 1966! So it's been 44 years since a non-BCS team has won the finals and since 1979 that a non-BCS team has even been in the finals (Indiana State).

**EDIT**
As Slut pointed out in the comments, I erred in my statement above. I forgot about UNLV's championship in 1990. Although, as Slut also pointed out, they were fashioned to be a basketball factory and ended up getting caught for several violations. Butler is anything but that.

I cannot find the article that I looked at over the weekend, but they skipped UTEP/Texas Western and went back to 1963 and Loyola (Ill.) as the last non-BCS school. Oh, well. Shame on me. Feel free to point this out on another blog. You know, bad writing about bad writing about bad sports writing.
************

It will be interesting to watch the game tonight. Butler is essentially playing a home game as the majority of the crowd will be rooting for the Bulldogs (or rooting against Duke). I think most writers have dropped the Cinderella tag by now, but Butler has not really worn the Cinderella crown for several years. They have established a program that focuses on the team, not star individuals, and the right mentalities. The team adopted the Colts mantra of "the next game." The next game is the only thing to focus on. Not the big game three of four games up the road. Not winning the championship before the first round game. Always the next game.

Well now we've reached the summit and that next game is THE game.

"GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Side Note: This could the last entry for the vast majority of us at LomHenn.com as we may all suffer deadly heart attacks, brain aneurysms or nervous breakdowns while watching tonight's game. If so, we would like to thank all of our readers (or reader) over the past couple of years. Should we survive, we look forward to screaming about a Butler victory.

Butler Fight Song Lyrics Reminder

Congratulations to the our Butler Bulldogs making the NCAA 2010 Final Four, in Indianapolis to boot!

I know those of us here at LomHenn are quite excited about it. So in honor of the Bulldogs and since everyone will no doubt here the Butler fight song during the ensuing games this weekend, we thought we would remind our readers of the lyrics to the song...at least the version that we sing.

Click on the link here to listen to the fight song and feel free to scream the lyrics. I know that Slut and I have during this year's tournament run.

This is the Butler Fight Song, I don't know the words

This is the Butler Fight Song, I still don't know the words

This is the Butler Fight Song, I really don't know the words

This is the Butler Fight Song, what the fuck are the words

What the fuck are the words!

So please help us cheer the 'Dawgs on their way to the championship and sing our version of the lyrics! At least they make more sense than the actual lyrics.

Forget Bob Kravitz

Congratulations to the Butler Bulldogs on making their first Elite Eight appearance! I'm not sure if they can necessarily wear the Cinderella crown like George Mason in 2006 at this point, but the clock has not struck midnight for them yet.

As much as we would like to forget about Bob Kravitz, our standards dictate that we cannot. We are the standard bearers for bad writing on bad writing. It is articles like this one that we banded together to shine a light on the travesties of wretched sports media writing.

Forget 'Hoosiers'; these 'Dogs are for real

Or...Forget Bob Kravitz; another Turd-burger special awaits!

Oh, great. Since we are in Indiana, why does everyone feel the need to incorporate the movie Hoosiers into any type of small school vs. big school basketball (or seemingly any sport) match up?

Here comes America, armed with its tape measures and Hickory High story lines and features about how Brad Stevens is the lineal descendant of Norman Dale. Now that the Butler Bulldogs are one West Regional victory from writing one of the great college basketball stories ever told -- Butler in the Final Four in Indianapolis -- it's fair to assume the land's journalists are prepared to show up and go all Jimmy Chitwood on us.

I know that the Butler bandwagon is growing and will swell if they make the Final Four and are the lowest remaining seed. I think that is great for a small school from a mid-major conference. Add in the fact they would be playing in their hometown is noteworthy. It only becomes one of the great college basketball stories if they make it to the final game or even win it all. That is a story to remember. If they make it to the Final Four, it is noteworthy, but not necessarily great by any means. Noteworthy, Bob, not "great", got it.

(OK, Sparky)
Here's the deal:

Butler, a 63-59 victor over No. 1-seeded and fourth-ranked Syracuse on Thursday night, is no fluke, no Little Team That Could, no come-from-nowhere Hickory High, even if I'm pretty sure that was Shooter lingering near the end of the Butler bench.

For the love of God, please stop the Hoosiers references!

Too bad it was not a shooter trying to put your computer in his sights so we would not have to read this.

The Bulldogs went athlete for athlete, face to face with an imposing Syracuse team, and showed they were not only more composed and poised, but more athletic than a team that was supposed to be the best in the nation's best conference. (Number of teams in the Elite Eight: Big East 1, Horizon League 1).

No doubt that the Big East was the most hyped conference coming into the tournament this year. I am not sure if it was due more to the Big East being that up or the rest of the conferences just being more down. The Pac-10 just plain sucked ass and it was a minor miracle that Washington made it into the Dance. (Just goes to show that any team that makes the Dance can dance more than once.) The Big Ten has some really good teams in Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue, but the bottom of the conference was atrocious. The Big East sent eight teams to the tournament and yes, it is surprising that only one remains into the Elite Eight.

Who saw that one coming?

Me. But that is more due to the fact that Mrs. Bembledack is a Butler grad and being a Butler homer than pure outright foresight.

Butler, the coaches and players, they saw that one coming.


No, they did not see it coming, Assbag! I'm pretty sure that Brad Stevens did not have a Nostradamus moment and foresee just how far the team would go this year. The Bulldogs have worked their asses off all year and have played their way here. No one knows just how far they can go until they play.

"We don't need to hit a bunch of 3s to win,'' Butler assistant Matthew Graves said an hour before the game. "We've got to stop them in transition, we've got to make sure we hang in there on the boards, and we've got to attack them in the paint and on the baseline. We haven't even talked about 3s.''

No, but it definitely helps their game when they do hit 3s. When Butler can hit their outside shots, the inside can open up for Matt Howard. Thankfully, Butler is athletic enough and plays team defense to be able to win without requiring 3s.

So what did they do?

I bet you're going to tell us, huh?

They shot a miserable 6-for-24 from 3, although they hit two monster 3s in the final minutes -- and won.

While hitting 25% of your 3s is below their season average of 34.2%, I would not really call it miserable.

Bottom line, Butler won with defense, forcing 18 turnovers and reducing Syracuse's vaunted offense to mush. Willie Veasley, charitably listed at 6-3, kept 6-7 Orange star Wesley Johnson under control. Ronald Nored, who said he ran "a marathon'' chasing sharpshooter Andy Rautins, flustered his opponent into bad shots down the stretch. Once Butler overcame the late four-point deficit and went up by a point, Syracuse panicked.

Wow, something Bob is correct on. Syracuse did seem to panic when Butler went on their 11-0 run to take a 61-54 lead, but they collected their wits some and nearly came back at the end.

Syracuse likes to play fast, play in transition, so we wanted to make it an ugly game for them,'' said Nored, who stole the ball at game's end to seal the deal. "We saw on films, when games were tough and ugly, they weren't as good as when they were out in transition, hitting 3s and getting dunks.

"And we could see them getting frustrated. You could see it in the first half, and then the last few minutes of the game. We got to them.''

Another reason why Butler is still playing and Syracuse is heading home early...again.

Afterward, Syracuse's players looked like they'd just taken the collar from some pitcher throwing 82-mph slop. Yet, the Bulldogs shot atrociously from 3-point range and still knocked off the Orange. And they played a good portion of the first half without foul-plagued Gordon Hayward. And they had to survive for a stretch when Matt Howard got his fourth foul with 8:23 remaining.

OK, Turdfucker! Since when does someone with two personal fouls be considered as foul-plagued? What fucking journalism school did you supposedly graduate from? He may have picked up two first half fouls, but he was not called for any in the second half. I do not consider that foul-plagued by any means. Matt Howard is foul-plagued and has been all season.

Seriously, take away the Butler uniforms, and they could have been one of those Big East behemoths, a Pitt or a Villanova or a West Virginia.

Take away their uniforms and they would be playing in their underwear. I REALLY do not want to see that. Now having the cheerleaders in their underwear, that I would watch!

Now America knows what we've known all along: The Bulldogs can not only play with anybody, they can beat anybody, including Syracuse on a night when they had to rely more on athleticism than long-range shooting. Clearly, this isn't your older brother's Butler team.

The Bulldogs have been able to beat anybody for a while. They lost in OT to Tennessee by 2 points in 2006 when Tennessee was an under-seeded #2-seed. They took the NCAA Champion Florida Gators to the wire in the second round of the 2008 tournament. They've been on the cusp of the limelight for a while. This is just the first time they've been able to put it all together.

Forget about destiny. This is about a wonderful basketball team that defends and cherishes each possession. They've gotten this far. Why not a few steps further?

It is nice to have a team that can actually pass the ball around more than once or twice and can actually play defense. And yes, if they can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

Maybe it's the fact that Butler has never been in the Elite Eight before, but it's like nobody can quite get their arms around the notion. After the game, several of Butler's reserves gathered around a locker room TV as CBS' Seth Davis held court.

"S-s-h-h-h, s-s-h-h-h, I want to hear this,'' someone said.

Davis made the point about how Syracuse desperately missed its injured center Arinze Onuaku -- a point Brad Stevens had made earlier.

The Butler players moaned.

"Man,'' they said, disgusted.

It is easier for the sports media to make excuses for why a higher seeded team lost to a lower seed. We are a society of excuse makers. We cannot seem to comprehend that some teams are going to get beat regardless whether you have all of your players or not. All the sports talking heads were quick to point out that Butler's defeat of Ohio State was due to Evan Turner not playing due to an injury. Yes, I'm sure it would have made a difference if he had played, but Butler handled the Buckeyes pretty well, so you cannot discount what Butler did just because someone good did not play.

Why wasn't Onuaku's absence such a big deal in Syracuse's monster victory over Gonzaga?

Because they won you fucktard! It only becomes an excuse when they lose.

Even as they continue this marvelous march back home, Butler is loath to play up the obvious story line. They know the Final Four is in Indy. They are aware that Butler is located in Indy. Smart kids at Butler. They get it. They see the elephant in the room.

They just don't want any part of it, at least not yet.

The elephant is not in the room, it is sitting on your brain evidently. As Brad Stevens has said all during their current 23-game winning streak, they take one game at a time. They only look to the next game. Yes, they know where their next victory will take them, but they know they have to win to get there.

"I'm going home on Saturday night or Sunday morning, whenever the charter gets here, and we're going to Indy,'' Stevens said. "I just hope we still have season left.''

And we'll be excited for you whether or not you won or lost.

They're not the only ones. America is ready for Butler back in Indianapolis, and if Purdue can follow suit, it's going to be a regular Hoosier-palooza, replete with pork tenderloins and Bobby Plump sightings.

While having both Butler and Purdue in the Final Four would be great for basketball in Indiana, it would be horrible for businesses, but that is a different story.

Great stories don't win basketball games like this one. Great teams do.

And what would you know about great stories. It's not like you've ever written one.

Butler is one of the small fish in the ocean, but they have the teeth to take on any of the teams remaining. The Bembledack clan will be rooting for the Bulldogs all the way and will scream the roof off of my house if Butler wins it all. Do I think Butler could beat the likes of a Kentucky? My answer is yes. If Butler's outside game is on, if Matt Howard can keep out of trouble and they play their current stifling defense, then I think they would at least be in the game to win it at the end.

Sad thing is, if Butler does make it to Indy, I may have to kill someone over the mass of Hoosiers movie reference that will spill forth. FUCK!

BracketBusters - Busting the Brackets?

The BracketBusters were created by ESPN to give mid-major conference teams some time in the spotlight to impress the NCAA Selection Committee. ESPN has done a decent job of giving some good match ups the past couple of years. This year's premier game was between Butler and Siena. Butler and Siena had the two longest winning streaks going until Siena lost the weekend before the BracketBuster game. However, are the BracketBuster games a chance to shine or are they ruining the chance for mid-major teams to earn an at-large bid?

Think about it. Butler and Northern Iowa were ranked at the time of the BracketBuster games and most likely would not have been hurt by a loss. However, the teams they beat, Siena and Old Dominion, respectively, had everything to lose. Granted those losses probably still helped their RPI rankings, but it still leaves a black-eye on the teams. Had they won, it becomes probably their best win and looks good on an at-large bid resume. So frankly, teams that lose the BracketBuster game and lose in their conference tournaments, will tend to have almost no shot at an at-large bid unless they've ran the table otherwise in their conference.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, unless it pertains to the NBA and the Indiana Pacers in the mid-90's, but that's a different story altogether. [Say it with me now, "That's different story altogether."] Yet, it seems like the BCS schools benefit more from the top mid-major clubs beating up on each other than the mid-major clubs gain from the victories. You win, and the media look at your team like, "Yes, but you were supposed to win." You lose, and it becomes, "If you can't beat another top mid-major team, your not as worthy as the #8 team out of the Big East. "

There is already enough of a mid-major bias within the NCAA Selection Committee. I have had a hard time tolerating mid-major teams that win their conference regular season, but lose in their conference tournament finals that get passed over for the #7 team out of the Big Ten or the Pac-10. Can you really tell me that a team that went 8-8 in a BCS conference is really more worthy than a mid-major team that went 16-2 in their conference but lost in their conference finals?

Butler seems to be the poster child for the mid-majors right now. Last year they were being listed as a 6 or 7 seed, yet they lost their tournament final to Cleveland State and get dropped to a 9 seed? Get real! This week they were getting listed as a 6 seed on most sites until the media started noticing. Suddenly, they are now a 5 seed on most sites. It will be interesting to see if the Selection Committee follows suit or if they try and drop them down...again. The Bracketologist also seem to have a selective set of criteria it seems. I have heard more than once this week:

• That Butler plays in a weak conference, but the Horizon League currently ranks 14th out of 31. I don't really list that as weak.
• That Tennessee's RPI of #16 warrants a #4 seed, yet Butler's RPI of #14 does not warrant a #4 seed.

Do you want to know what I would really like to see in the BracketBuster games?

How about having mid-major teams play BCS-conference teams, some good ol' David vs. Goliath games. Let's have another Butler-Duke match up or Cleveland State-Wake Forest or Murray State-Michigan State. Actually, since most of my issues tend to revolve around mediocre BCS teams getting the nods over mid-major teams, why not have games between the top teams of the mid-major schools versus the middle echelon BCS conference teams? Obviously, the BCS schools would not want to go with that since they have everything to lose and not as much to gain. Yet, it would really give credence to a mid-major's resume if they did win.

Sorry, it's Friday and I'm rambling. Time to head by to my parent's basement for the weekend. Sunday evening will bring me another round of headaches I'm sure. Stay tuned. We'll see if we can round up the gang to publish our picks for the tournament. I'm sure it will be worth some laughs.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Holy shit! Two posts in two days!

I hate when life gets in the way. I've had many ideas over the past few months that I really wanted to write about, I just have not had the time and opportunity to do it. Hopefully, with the change of seasons will come a change in my ability to actually post.

Today's post brings us back to our favorite whipping-boy, Bobby Kravitz. Bob's article today was on Butler's victory last night in the championship game of the Horizon League and how they deserve a higher seeding than the NCAA Selection Committee has typically given them the past few years.

The article itself is really not that bad. It is just that Bob's laziness has once again crept into his work. One of the first rules of journalism is to check the facts. Bob has a repetitive glitch in his system that seems to prevent him from either looking up or reviewing facts in his articles.

Today's example:

They have the country's best road record 12-0 (1-2 on neutral courts).

Butler is now 28-4 on the season. They went undefeated at home going 15-0 for the season. Let's do the math Bob-style, shall we?

Home 15-0

Away 12-0

Neutral 1-2

Total 28-2

So, Bob, where did the other two losses come from?

And Bob, didn't Butler lose to UAB on the road?!? Forgot that one, huh? I think everyone who follows basketball in Indiana could have told you that.

Fucktard!

I might have been able to forgive the missing neutral court loss. That could have been from a typo. Except, again, simple math should have told you that if a teams has four losses, you should account for all of those losses!

How FUCKING hard is it to pull up the Butler page on ESPN.com to verify your information? It took me all of 20 seconds to find Butler's schedule on ESPN.com. I could immediately tell you that they went 15-0 at home, 12-1 on the road and 1-3 on neutral courts.

Double Fucking Lazy Fuckatard!!!!

Get off your GD ass, open a browser and actually look something up for a change, will ya!

Come on, Streebeck. Let's go track down some more villainous writers...

Rah! Rah! Rah! Cheering From the Broadcast Booth

A disturbing trend in radio sports broadcasts has taken hold the last few years. Specifically, the trend of broadcasters to cheer for the team for which they broadcast. Within the broadcast industry, people who do this are known as "homers."

There are notable homers working today, such as Bob Lamey (Indianapolis Colts radio network), Hawk Harrelson (Chicago White Sox broadcasts), Michael Kay (New York Yankees), and Ron Santo (Chicago Cubs). Lamey, Harrelson, and Kay do play-by-play, while Santo does color commentary (at least, is supposed to do that).

What has happened more and more recently is for the broadcasters--usually the color commentators, but sometimes the play-by-play announcers, too--to become cheerleaders during the broadcast. This includes cheering to the point of not providing meaningful analysis of the game. Of course, we look no further than Ron Santo for one of the best examples (this comes from a Cubs/Brewers game in 1998 when Cubs left fielder Brant Brown dropped a routine fly ball that lost the game for the Cubs).

In this afternoon's radio broadcast of the Butler/LSU opening round NCAA Tournament game on the Butler Radio Network provided another example of bad broadcasting. Butler color analyst Nick Gardner constantly referred to Butler as "we" throughout the game. Evidently, Gardner thinks he still plays for Butler--either that or he had a mouse in his pocket.

In either case, it's very hard to have credibility as a broadcaster when you include yourself as part of the team. It's one thing for fans to do that--who cares, we're not supposed to be objective--but as a broadcaster, there should be some sort of separation between you and the team.

Of course, it didn't help that Gardner's analysis was lacking, too--such gems as "you want to score here" when Butler had the ball did not provide any insight into how the Bulldogs could best accomplish that.

Butler lost today, so there won't be any more opportunities for Gardner to provide non-analysis this season. Perhaps in next season's opener, one of Gardner's keys to the game will be for Butler to score more points than the other team.

Every Time I Think I'm Out...

...he pulls me back in!

Joy mixed with anger at Purdue

Apparently, the Big Ten Tournament result doesn't matter. They might as well have played the Purdue-Ohio State final next Thursday on the moon for all it impacted the NCAA selection committee's decision.

On the moon...with Steve?

Little Bobby Kravitz is probably right, the Big Ten Tournament Final didn't matter as to where Purdue was seeded in the NCAA Tournament--or to where Ohio State went, either. And why should it? It's one game--shouldn't the "overall body of work" (i.e. the whole season) matter more than one game?

Riddle me this: How does Purdue tie for second place during the regular season and then win the Big Ten Tournament title -- win the tournament in a conference ranked second in the nation -- and earn nothing better than a No. 5 seed?

Nice up-to-date "Riddle me this" reference, Bob. How about a KAPOW!! in the article, too?

Now to his question--perhaps it's because the Tournament Selection Committee looks at the whole season, and not just one game? Yes, the Big Ten was the second-rated conference this season. Purdue finished tied for 2nd in the conference and ended the season with an RPI of 20 or 21 depending on who you look at. If the Committee uses RPI as its guide--which it says it does--the Boilermakers are exactly where they should be. You could even make the argument that they could have ended up with a 6-seed.

But I'm using logic and reason in my analysis. Bob is using...well, nothing.
Then, if the Boilers beat Northern Iowa in the first round, they would likely play Washington in semi-nearby Portland, Ore.

It could be worse. You could have to play a 1-seed about an hour away from its campus.

Here's how unimportant conference tournaments are:

Among the four No. 4 seeds (Wake Forest, Washington, Xavier and Gonzaga), only Gonzaga won its conference tournament.

Among the four No. 5s (Purdue, Utah, Florida State and Illinois), Purdue and Utah won conference tournaments. And Purdue wiped out Illinois in the conference semifinal.

Wow--one more 5-seed won its conference tournament than the 4-seeds! Stop the presses!!

Of the 4-seeds, only Gonzaga had an RPI higher than 20 (26). Of the 5-seeds, Purdue: RPI 21, Illinois: 22, Florida State: 14, and Utah: 9. If anyone should be bitching, it's Utah--why aren't the Utes a 3-seed?

I agree with Kravitz in that it seems clear that conference tournaments didn't matter to the committee. Where we disagree is that Kravitz thinks they should matter--I prefer to look at the entire season.

(And yes, I know the committee uses a variety of factors for selection to the tournament, including records over the last 10 games, which means that winning a conference tournament should help you in terms of being a "hot team." But I don't think winning a conference tournament should count more than going 8-2 or 9-1 over the last 10 games).

Look at the very top of the brackets, where Pittsburgh, Connecticut and North Carolina lost in their conference tournaments and still maintained their No. 1 seeds.

Unless you're a bubble team making a miracle run to a conference tournament crown -- or Syracuse -- this week was utterly meaningless.

Yeah--Maryland (RPI-52, 10-seed in tournament) didn't benefit at all from its conference tournament...I'm sure the 2-1 record Maryland had in the ACC tournament meant nothing.
Profitable, good for TV and the host cities and the winners who get to wear cool new hats, but ultimately meaningless.

I agree with Kravitz on this point. In fact, I'd like to see the NCAA give the automatic berth from each conference to the regular season winner, instead of whoever wins the conference tournament. But I know that will never happen.

Purdue should have been at least a No. 4 seed. That's not only based on the fact they had a marvelous weekend here in Indianapolis and won the tournament of one of the nation's deepest conferences, but the fact that when their team has been healthy, they are one of the 10 or 15 best teams in the nation.

So, using that logic, shouldn't St. Mary's have gotten in to the tournament? They lost Patty Mills for 5 weeks, and you could definitely make the argument that the Gaels are one of the best 32 teams "when they are healthy." Same with Davidson--Stephen Curry was hurt for a few games, but when he is healthy, Davidson is a deserving team.

See how stupid an argument that is? I know the committee can do what it wants in its selection process, but seeding teams based on what they "might be" compared to how they actually performed is a ridiculous idea.

And Purdue got a 5-seed...and Kravitz is acting like the Boilers should be pissed off about not getting a 4-seed. I mean, it's not like it was a top 2 RPI team that got screwed down to a 9-seed (keep reading...)

Does one seeding spot make that much difference? Not really. If form holds, the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds will play each other in the second round, anyway. And even given the geographic disadvantage of possibly playing Washington in Portland, there's a lot to like about Purdue right now against anybody.

So now you're saying a 5-seed is okay? Do you always write stream-of-consciousness style?

Sure, one seed makes little difference between a #4 and #5. But I'd say there's a tremendous difference between #7 and #8...

Big picture, the Big Ten really can't complain. Seven teams was exactly the right number, with four teams in the top half of the bracket (Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State) and three as double-digit seeds (Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin).

I disagree. For the third year in a row, the NCAA selection committee has made a concerted effort to reward the big conferences and eliminate the at-large selections for mid-majors. The Big Ten did not deserve seven teams. Creighton (RPI-40), St. Mary's (46), and UAB (41) should have been considered before Michigan and Wisconsin.

As for Penn State, consider this equation: If your RPI is within 20 of Joe Paterno's age, you don't get the NCAA bid. So no whining.

Joe Paterno=82 years old. Arizona's RPI=62. Arizona is the #12 seed in the Midwest.

It's funny, pathetic, and sad all at once that the only time Kravitz uses RPI in his article, he fucks it up.

As for the other in-state team, Butler, the selection committee got it right. The Bulldogs could have been an 8 or a 9, which makes absolutely no difference. Sorry, but if you fall short in the Horizon League Tournament final and lose at home to Loyola, an 8 or a 9 is as high as you're going to rate.

Purdue lost at home to Northwestern. Now I'm not suggesting that Purdue be seeded lower than Butler (though their RPIs are very similar), but citing one loss as a basis for a seeding is stupid at best.

Butler has been in the Top 20 or 25 RPI all season--currently 22. How this warranted a 9-seed--who the fuck knows? Yes, Butler lost in the Horizon League championship game and went 7-3 over the final 10 games. So does that one tournament loss hurt you that much, especially when it's to a good Cleveland State team that has played well all season?

I know that Butler's strength of schedule isn't much--ranked 96th--but the Bulldogs had a great non-conference schedule, which included a road win over Xavier.

Let's compare Butler to a wildly successful mid-major: Gonzaga. Both Gonzaga and Butler have been ranked in the Top 25 all season--not that polls matter--but they've both been consistently good all year. Both teams are 25-5. Gonzaga won its conference tournament and went 9-1 over its last 10 games, and the one loss was against Memphis. However, Gonzaga's RPI is 29--seven spots worse than Butler.

What about strength of schedule? I mentioned already that Butler's is 96, but Gonzaga's is only marginally better: ranked 92nd! Somehow, Gonzaga is a 4-seed while Butler only got a 9-seed. Evidently, playing well at the end of the season is worth a whopping five spots in seeding. And for Butler, not only does the 9-seed give Butler a tough first round game against LSU, but it also means that if Butler wins, it gets 1-seed North Carolina in the second round.

As we've mentioned before on Lom Henn.com, many of us are Butler fans, myself included. Of course I'd like to see them seeded higher. But the NCAA has clearly been punishing the mid-majors over the last three seasons. At this point, I don't think Gonzaga qualifies as a mid-major anymore, despite the fact that it plays in a weak conference.

Back to Kravitz--the question he should be asking here regarding Butler and Purdue is why Purdue's conference tournament win didn't seem to be a factor in the selection committee's seeding, yet Butler's conference tournament loss did seem to be a factor. Shouldn't he notice and inquire about the inconsistency?

If they can beat LSU in an interesting first-round matchup, they'd have to face North Carolina in Greensboro, N.C. Apparently, the Dean Dome was booked at the time. Good luck with that, gentlemen.

That's it. That's all the analysis Kravitz has regarding Butler: "if you can win your first round game, forget about the next one." With North Carolina looming in the second round, isn't it more important Butler have gotten a higher seed? Maybe at least humor the Butler faithful a little by saying that it's too bad they got a 9-seed for that reason? Something? It's obvious during the season that Kravitz couldn't find Hinkle Fieldhouse if he ran into it with his tractor, but I'd think that Butler deserves a bit of coverage based on what they've done over the past few seasons. Not to mention that Butler is located in Indianapolis, after all, which is the same city of Kravitz's employer...

But no, we just get the same amount of meaningful analysis we've come to expect from Kravitz, which is none at all. At least he's consistent.

Set Phasers to 'Stun', Not the Headline

Sadly, the Butler Bulldogs were unable to win the Horizon League Conference Tournament and lost a close game to Cleveland State 57-54 last night. We all know this is a wonderful and busy time of year for college basketball fans and sports writers. However, this is what evidently happens when someone gets assigned a story that has not done any background research and is writing the story to meet their deadline. I do not have a problem with the article, just the headline.

Cleveland State stuns No. 17 Butler for Horizon title

OK, I am willing to accept the fact that the Vikings upset Butler since the Bulldogs were ranked 17th and Cleveland State is not. However, if this lazy fucktard, how must be a relative or previous understudy of Bob Kravitz, should have looked at the previous meetings this year. He would have realized that Butler won both games by a combined four points. The first game was won on a last second shot by Gordon Heyward and Butler had to hang on by a thread to win the second at home. Therefore, it should not have been a surprise that the Vikings gave up quite a fight and won the game. They were not the #8 seed. Cleveland State was the #3 seed in the tournament. Cleveland State was the pre-season pick to win the league, Butler was picked to finish fifth. Hence, no stunning or surprising here.

Dude (or Dudette, as the author is not listed as it is an AP story), take two fucking minutes to do some research on the Internet, flip through the game program, look it up on your cell phone or even ask a Butler fan near you could have filled you in on the matchups that occurred this season. Everyone else who was a Butler fan at Hinkle may have been sad about the loss, but they were definitely not stunned!

Congratulations to the Cleveland State Vikings. Hopefully they can work another first round upset like their last trip to the Dance in 1986. Remember 1986, when they were a #14 seed and upset the #3 Indiana Hoosiers? Luckily, Butler has a good enough resume to still get into the dance, but there seeding with take it a hit with the loss. I just hope the NCAA Slection Committee at least gives them a seeding where they have a chance to make it to the second weekend and possibly in the Midwest bracket where they would play in Indy. Wait, they tend to be fucktards as well, so they will probably be an #8 seed and be shipped out west. I'll save my rant against the Selection Committee and it's failure to acknowledge the mid-majors for next week.

At Least It's Not In Black And White

As a Butler alumnus, it probably comes as no surprise that I follow Bulldogs basketball. Given their recent success and the growth of the program over the last 6-7 years, Butler has gotten more national interest and more games televised this season.

That's the good news. The bad news is that every game that ESPN has televised involving Butler has been in standard definition (SD) instead of HD. I guess ESPN doesn't feel that Butler deserves to be shown in HD? I know that the Horizon League isn't a power conference, but it still seems ridiculous--especially since Butler has been ranked in the Top 25 nearly all season.

And it's not like ESPN doesn't have the resources. I mean, how many people do they have on the air during their Monday Night Football broadcasts? They commit something like 8-9 broadcasters and "analysts" for every MNF game, but can't commit to showing every college basketball game in HD? This isn't 2003, where HD was still pretty new, but 2009, right?

Why not show the game in black and white? Just think about how much cheaper it would be! Better yet, why not just show a black screen and only carry the audio? Talk about a new trend--radio on TV! And it would be appropriate given that today's game is at Butler, which plays in legendary Hinkle Fieldhouse. What better way to celebrate the tradition that Hinkle represents?

Perhaps I should trademark those ideas.

Butler Fight Song - Alternative Lyrics

Having attended several Butler Bulldog basketball games over the past few years, you get to hear the Butler Fight Song many times. I also know several Butler alums and pretty much none of them know or never even knew the song lyrics when they attended.

So Slut, Zinglebert and I got together and have made up our own set of lyrics which we find much more enjoyable. Click here to listen to the song and you too can sing along!

This is the Butler Fight Song, I don't know the words
This is the Butler Fight Song, I still don't know the words
This is the Butler Fight Song, I really don't know the words
This is the Butler Fight Song, what the fuck are the words
What the fuck are the words!

Yes, a quick Internet search could find us the correct Butler War Song lyrics, but what's the fun in that? We like our version much, much better.