Butler Rewarded for 29-3 Season, Top 10 Ranking with 7-seed

Congratulations! You get Tennessee in the Second Round!

Butler, despite playing in a weak Horizon League, put up a strong year in 2007-2008. They touted a recognizable star (A.J. Graves), a strong sense of team recognition after a strong 2007 season, and wins over bubble teams like Virginia Tech, Ohio State, and Southern Illinois. The only thing that they lacked was a signature win, as the only Tourney-bound team they played (Drake) beat them by 7 points. This however, was one of only 3 blemishes, putting them behind only UNC and Memphis in the loss column and giving them a Top Ten ranking in the final poll before the NCAA tournament.

Logically, the NCAA bracket makers decided to stick the team with a 7-seed in one of the hardest brackets in tournament history. For the #10 (#11 AP) ranked team in the country to make it to the Final Four, they'd have to potentially beat Tennessee, Louisville, and UNC in consecutive games. On the other hand, Vanderbilt, ranked #19, drew a 4 seed, and potential matchups with Siena and Clemson on the way to the Sweet Sixteen, despite the fact that their best win away from Memorial Gym was at Depaul (or Georgia, depending on how you look at them).

Really, any excuse I get to post Alex Gordon, I'll use.

While I'm not going to complain, as I'm sure I'll be crying hysterically after Ross Neltner goes 0-12 in regulation during a Siena upset, this seems like a huge oversight. Did Butler get screwed? If this was college football, we would have been praising them like we did Rich Rodriguez for setting up such an easy OOC schedule on the path to postseason play. However, since they didn't bother to put one team that looked like an NCAA lock on the schedule this season (Ohio State would be without Oden and Conley, no one thought Drake would be this good, and Florida State/Texas Tech/Michigan were all clearly going to be bad BCS teams), it looks like they have no one to blame but themselves. Now they've got something to prove, and all the cupcake teams in the beginning of their season have turned into monster games in the NCAA tournament.

Underrated? Probably. Screwed? Yes. But they're as responsible for this as the selection committee is, and they'll have to dig their way out to be anything more than a mid-major novelty this year.