NEW ORLEANS — Whether in the fairy tale or the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the Cinderella story always ends. And stays ended.
They have their one magic moment, and then move on, happily into history.
The Butler Bulldogs, though, are putting together what Penn in 1980, Providence in 1988 and “Cinderella II” in 2002 couldn’t — a magnificent sequel.
After reaching the NCAA championship game last year, Butler is in the midst of a reprise. From the country’s viewpoint, Butler has reached the Sweet 16 primarily because coach Brad Stevens, who has the youthful look of someone not far removed from believing in fairy tales, is both a brilliant head coach and crazy for not leaping to a higher-profile, higher-paying basketball program.
“I appreciate the compliment, and I appreciate you saying I’m crazy for staying,” Stevens said Wednesday at the New Orleans Arena, where his No. 8-seeded Bulldogs prepared for their Sweet 16 game tonight against No. 4-seeded Wisconsin. “One of the things in all the job talk is, it’s all speculation. It’s not like my cellphone is blowing up. And it’s not like I’m a guy that thinks the grass is greener somewhere else just because everybody says it’s supposed to be. I think that we are very fortunate to have really green grass in Indianapolis and at Butler University.”
As Denver Broncos fans can confirm, it can be risky to hire a younger head coach, especially when he looks even younger than he is. The concern is youth might not command respect from the players.
Stevens has appeared wiser since a recent eye issue forced him to wear glasses instead of contacts. Specs or no specs, though, he gets respect.
“I think it really helps to recruit guys that aren’t — I mean, you can find out what type of guys are when you recruit them,” senior center Matt Howard said. “If you don’t recruit disrespectful guys and you recruit the right people, then you don’t normally have a problem with that.”
The Butler-Wisconsin matchup spans the generations. Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan didn’t get his first Division I head coaching job until he was 51. He’s now 63.
Stevens was 22 when he left a high-paying job with Eli Lilly Co. to accept a low-paying assistant job from Thad Matta at Butler. When Matta left for Xavier (and later Ohio State), and his successor, Todd Lich-liter, left for Iowa, the 30-year-old Stevens got Butler’s top job.
“Not all of us got that opportunity because maybe we weren’t in the right place, right time, whatever,” Ryan said. “But there’s a guy that got an opportunity, and he’s putting the pedal to the metal. He’s got those guys doing what he wants. The important thing as a coach is: You see a game a certain way and your players have to see it that way. And he’s done that with his teams.”
Butler as Cinderella I went to the NCAA championship game last year in its hometown, where the local team would have defeated mighty Duke had the half-court bank shot of star player Gordon Hayward not rattled off the rim at the buzzer.
Hayward left for the NBA after that shot, though, and when the best player leaves, there is not supposed to be an Underdog II the following year.
Yet, despite a remarkable record that now stands at 114-24 — an average of 29-6 per — Stevens remains with a program that plays in the Horizon League with the likes of Detroit Mercy and Wright State.
Then again, how’s Tennessee doing in the SEC?
Butler, meanwhile, did it again last week, getting back-to-back game-winning shots with less than a second left by Howard to knock off Old Dominion and then No. 1-seeded Pitt.
With a humility and maturity that belies his years, Stevens understands the Butler story rarely comes along, much less in consecutive years.
“We got to the Sweet 16 this year because we had the ball last in two games,” Stevens said. “Otherwise we’re done in the first round. So it’s hard to advance. And so getting to a Final Four — we recognize how fortunate we were to have been in that situation. It’s almost fairy tale type stuff.”
Cast Stevens as the prince of college coaching.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
