There are some “24” Spoilers in this article, so don’t continue if you haven’t watched the two-hour episode from last night.
There will be two things that I will remember about Monday, April 5th 2010.
Duke’s 4th National Championship and the death of President Hassan’s hair on “24.”
It is kind of ironic that on the same day that Jack Bauer couldn’t save the day, Butler couldn’t save the nation from Duke.
Butler has no one to blame but themselves for the loss; they had every opportunity to win the game. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll remember that I said Butler had to do three things to win:
Play great defense
Rebound like they have never rebounded before
Shoot lights out
Two out of three wasn’t bad. They held Duke to 44% from the field and only five three pointers. Amazingly, they had one more offensive rebound than Duke, and Duke had been killing their opponents on the offensive glass.
In the end, it was Butler’s horrid shooting that cost them the National Championship. They only shot 34% from the field. It wasn’t a product of Duke’s defense; it was a result of them missing so many easy shots. This was a game for the taking and they simply didn’t take it by the throat (should have watched how Jack did Dana on “24”).
As for this particular Duke team, they are much different than teams of the past. This is mainly due to them not being the favorite, and not having that one player everyone collectively gushed over to the point that it made you want to throw up (I refuse to put Kyle Singler in that category).
They were a team in every sense of the word.
Not very likable, but definitely a team you have to respect. Nothing cheap about their Championship, they earned it and they have the right to celebrate.
Coach K has always been one of the best coaches in college basketball. His legacy was already set, but winning a fourth just is adding to it.
I think out of all his championships, this was his greatest coaching job because this was not a great Duke team. It was a very good team with a great coach.
As Jack Bauer went in to save President Hassan and his hair, I felt the same way as when Gordan Hayward put up his halfcourt shot for the win.
It looked good, but you knew it wasn’t meant to be.
So farewell, President Hassan, and until next year, the terrorists – errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Duke, wins