They didn’t win. They did get nominated
The Bulldogs might argue in the lockerroom about the proper way to solve a physics problem, but on the court they were in harmony: Deploying their signature smothering team defense, they held each of their first five NCAA opponents to under 60 points. The final was likewise a defensive grind, but it was edge-of-your-seat thrilling, too. Duke missed opportunities, so did Butler — the greatest, perhaps, being Hayward’s missed baseline jumper with six seconds to go that would have given Butler the lead. With 3.2 seconds left and the Blue Devils up by one, Duke center Brian Zoubek made the first of two free throws, then missed the second on purpose to force Butler, then out of timeouts, to do something desperate to tie or win the game. And so the whole season came down to Hayward’s last-gasp shot that spun through the air, a raft of future Hollywood scripts riding with it.
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