Is it wrong to root for a Butler-Gonzaga showdown in the Southeast Regional final? It would be an 8 seed vs. an 11 seed, but would hardly call it two underdogs.
After all, those two are March royalty.
Ask anyone who’s been in the NCAA tournament recently. You don’t a piece of those Dogs.
“There are certain programs that maybe they play in a mid-major so-called conference, but they’ve been doing it long enough that they aren’t really a mid-major team,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon told the AP.
“I hate to put those terms on teams, but, you know, certain programs at certain leagues have done it for long enough that they have resources,” Dixon said, “they have the players, they have their tradition to play with anybody in the country.”
We’ll find out just how good this year’s versions are on Saturday.
The region’s top seed, Pitt, takes on the Bulldogs, while Jimmer Fredette and 3-seed BYU get the other Bulldogs.(That would be Butler and Gonzaga, respectively.) There’s little doubt Butler has the taller task ahead, but it can pull it off. It performed similar upsets last season.
Butler-Pitt tips off at 7:10 p.m. ET on TBS. Gonzaga-BYU is at 7:45 on CBS.