Strange: Butler a major threat in mid-major disguise

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The classic basketball movie “Hoosiers” was filmed in Hinkle Fieldhouse, the gym they use every day.

Watch them trot onto the court before a game and you’d almost swear they could be Hickory High School, come to life off the screen.

Ten of their 14 players, including four starters, are white. Except for the stubble on guard A.J. Graves’ chin their hairstyles suggest the 1950s.

Nine of them are true Hoosiers, products of hoops-mad Indiana high schools.

If he weren’t in a suit, their rookie coach, 31-year-old Brad Stevens, would be mistaken for a student manager.

But don’t be fooled by appearances.

In the month of March, you don’t want any part of the Butler Bulldogs.

Tennessee, like it or not, has 40 minutes of Butler today in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

For all it has accomplished in a magical season, UT has landed in a precarious spot today.

Sunlight reduces a vampire to dust. The world’s strongest man can be laid low by the wrong mosquito. Think where Pacman Jones might be if he could avoid strip joints.

For Tennessee basketball, the booby trap wire has been Mid-Majors.

The Vols’ March history is littered with stumbles over teams from the so-called Mid-Major level of the game.

It started in 1976, when the “Ernie & Bernie Show” (minus an injured Bernie) was shut down by VMI.

The Jerry Green Era was the worst. Tennessee was eliminated by Illinois State in 1998, routed by Southwest Missouri State in 1999, put out of its misery by UNC-Charlotte in 2001.

Even Bruce Pearl’s first season was brought to a premature second-round close by Wichita State in 2005.

Butler has 4,400 students on its Indianapolis campus. But along with Gonzaga, one might argue, it has transcended Mid-Majordom. Both beat the big boys with such regularity it’s no longer an upset.

Butler first made March Madness waves in 2001, ousting Wake Forest. Two years later the Bulldogs beat Mississippi State and Louisville here in Birmingham to reach the Sweet 16.

In 2007, a second-round win over Maryland propelled them to another Sweet 16. Earlier that season, Butler swept Indiana, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Gonzaga to win the Preseason NIT.

This year, Butler swept Michigan, Virginia Tech and Texas Tech to win the Great Alaska Shootout.

But the Bulldogs aren’t the least bit insulted at being called a Mid-Major.

“That’s what we are,’’ Graves, one of five seniors, said Saturday. “That’s the label we’re stuck with.

“We’re indifferent to it. I think sometimes we embrace it.’’

Pearl embraced it when he was at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, competing with Butler in the Horizon League.

“I was proud of the Mid-Major tag,’’ said Pearl. “Because it separated you a little bit from the … high majors or the BCS conferences.

“And that didn’t mean we couldn’t play with them.’’

Success has taken coaches from Butler to the BCS schools, but the system carries on. They proudly call it “The Butler Way’’ and it’s why the school promotes from within.

“They run pretty much exactly what they’ve run for years and years with four or five coaches,’’ said UT assistant coach Jason Shay, who assembled the scouting report for today’s game.

It still works. Pete Campbell went 8-of-10 from 3-point range Friday as the Bulldogs overpowered South Alabama.

Campbell is a 6-7 crew-cut senior from Muncie, Ind. In other words, a taller Jimmy Chitwood from the movie.

Saturday, I apologetically asked him about “Hoosiers,” expecting him to roll his eyes. Instead, his eyes lit up. He told me he never tires of talking about it.

“I live down the street so I can walk to Hinkle Fieldhouse and go shoot in that gym by myself every day,’’ he said.

“I’ve been at Butler for three years and I have never taken it for granted. It’s a special place and it certainly adds to the Butler mystique.’’

That’s more or less Tennessee’s job today. Avoid adding to the Butler mystique.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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