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America’s darlings? Whatever -- Butler wants to win

Butler’s run to a last year’s national title game charmed America. The only ones who weren’t? The Bulldogs.

Hey, who wants to fondly remember a game they lost?

Maybe that’s why this year’s run to another championship game shouldn’t have been a surprise. All Butler wanted to do was erase the taste last year’s loss left. From Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel:

“This whole weekend is business,” guard Ronald Nored said.

“Unfinished business,” guard Chase Stigall clarified.

In many ways, the whole season has been about unfinished business. This team didn’t spend the year basking in memories and assuming they could just turn it on when it counted. Prior to the Bulldogs Sweet Sixteen game against Wisconsin, Stevens actually feared his team was too serious.

This is supposed to be college basketball he told them. This is supposed to be fun.

Whatever. Butler is here for a single purpose and it isn’t to be America’s darlings. This isn’t completely new, of course. They thought they were going to win last season too and when they didn’t, they were shocked.


Then again, that’s not any different than the other 64 teams who ended last year’s NCAA tournament with a loss. Every one of ‘em wanted to return to the Big Dance and win it.

But that’s the amazing thing about Butler. It was the last team to lose in 2010 – and it’s one win from doing exactly what it set out to do. That’s a team of its word.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.