Every time Matthew Graves drives past Lucas Oil Stadium, he can’t help but reminisce about Butler’s dream run to the 2010 NCAA Final Four — one that started with a similar drive.

As the team bus drove to the airport to travel to its first round game in California that year, it went by the arena in downtown Indianapolis. Graves, Butler’s associate head coach, remembers one of the players saying how neat it would be to return in a few weeks to play there in the Final Four, just 10 miles from their campus.

After winning its first four games, that dream came to fruition. The Bulldogs then defeated Michigan State to advance to the NCAA championship game, where they lost to Duke.

‘Before the first time that we made that run, we always talked about it, dreamed about it,’ Graves said. ‘But once you were able to finally get there, I think then the belief was finally established that this could happen.’

Butler repeated the feat in 2011, falling to Connecticut in the national championship in Houston. The remarkable NCAA Tournament runs proved to the nation that a mid-major was capable of being a force on the national scene. In just four seasons under head coach Brad Stevens, the Horizon League program has become the model for success for mid-majors, combining good coaching with unique recruiting strategies.

Butler was somewhat overlooked despite three straight tournament appearances before its two trips to the national title game. But even with a student body of just under 4,000 undergraduates, the team has thrived under Stevens.

The challenge for the Bulldogs this season is to fill the voids left by some of the best players in program history. Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard have moved on, one year after Gordon Hayward left for the NBA. Each played a vital role in Butler’s success during the past four seasons.

The 2010 Bulldogs, led by Hayward, were mere inches from shocking the college basketball world and winning their first-ever NCAA title.

With Duke leading 61-59, Blue Devils center Brian Zoubek missed his second of two free throws. Hayward corralled the rebound and turned up court, receiving a screen from Howard near half court. Hayward, who had emerged as one of the best players in the tournament, hoisted up a shot from half court that glanced high off the backboard and hit off the front of the rim for a miss.

‘It was like your heart stopped for a fleeting moment,’ Graves said. ‘As the ball was in the air and it looked like it had a shot to go in all the way. … It almost went in, and that’s all you could ask for from our end.’

A year later, despite losing Hayward to the NBA, Butler overcame a 4-4 start and a three-game conference losing streak, stretching into early February to make a run to the national championship game. The Bulldogs caught fire with Howard and Mack leading the team to 14 consecutive wins before the loss to UConn in the championship.

For Bill Benner, the senior associate commissioner of external affairs of the Horizon League, the Bulldogs’ success to close out the season started with Stevens.

‘Stevens did a masterful job of keeping the team out of the panic mode,’ Benner said. ‘When they were struggling and telling them that he was seeing things that he thought they were getting better, and they were starting to lock into some of the defensive play that helped them in the previous year.’

Stevens’ brilliant coaching combined with his success on the recruiting trail has been the formula for Butler’s success.

Dave Telep, ESPN.com’s senior college basketball recruiting analyst, said Butler doesn’t waste time going after players that do not want to be there.

Butler may not get the biggest-name recruits, but that’s because they recruit differently from other major conference schools. Stevens recruits players that fit the program’s vision.

‘It’s not always about who has the biggest and best of everything,’ Benner said. ‘You don’t have to have the best arena in the country, you don’t have to have the biggest weight room, you don’t need to be pumping the most money into your program.

‘If you recruit well and you have a good system and you recruit kids to fit your system than you can be successful at the national level.’

Getting local talent has also been crucial. Hayward and Howard were both natives of the state of Indiana.

And the Bulldogs have continued to pursue players from the Hoosier State. Butler locked up homegrown talent Kellen Dunham, a three-star recruit in the Class of 2012, according to Rivals.

‘At the end of the day, it’s still about finding the right fit for Butler University,’ Graves said. ‘There’s just not as many student-athletes out there, regardless of whether you make a run to the national title game, or you’re .500, our philosophy on the type of person we want to bring in hasn’t changed.’

And this season, Butler has just three seniors on the roster. Senior guard Ronald Nored and junior center Andrew Smith will lead Butler as two of the team’s returning contributors in the last two seasons.

Smith averaged 8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season. Nored played crucial minutes as a part-time starter. Graves said the coaches are not going to expect anything different from Nored, especially because they know what each of these players is capable of.

‘His job is going to be just like it was the year before and the year before, is to be a great vocal leader for our team,’ Graves said, ‘and to keep everybody on the same page. And that’s what we’re going to ask him to do. Everything else will take care of itself.’

Still, Telep questions whether the Bulldogs can overcome their key losses. Telep said it would be too much to expect Butler to make it to the national championship game for the third consecutive season, especially after losing its core players.

‘They haven’t just lost guys from last year,’ Telep said. ‘They lost the year before an NBA lottery pick, and that’s a lot for a mid-major program to absorb. It’s about the long haul there, and they’ll have the next man that will step up. But they’ve experienced some heavier losses than most mid-major programs.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm