Selection Sunday- What is your NCAA Tourney Memory??

Well it's finally here!  One of the best days of the year as the NCAA makes their field of 68 come together for one of the best times of the year March Madness. A time where people are desperately checking their brackets this coming weekend to make sure their final picks are still alive.  A time where people are having games in the background while they are trying to work.  A time where teams can created moments that will always be around for us to remember years later.

For me being a Butler Bulldog fan, there have been two wonderful years of tournament runs that will not be recreated this year.  Butler came on at the end, but couldn't get their run in the Horizon League Tourney and will be going to some other post season tourney that no one will care about.

But I can take this moment and present my favorite moment tourney.  Two years ago, Butler went on a run to make it to the tourney.  There, they made their way through the rounds and had a shot to get to the farthest point they had been to, which was the Elite Eight.  Butler had made some Sweet Sixteen runs, but couldn't get past that round.

So who was waiting for Butler to advance only the number one seed, Syracuse.  Butler went on to beat Syracuse, and then defeated number two seed Kansas State to make it to the Final Four.  And where was the Final Four at that year?  Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which was the home of Butler.  The first team a team went to play a Final Four in their hometown.  Talk about an environment.  That was such an exciting few days.

I remember people all had Butler shirts and Butler gear.  Everyone adopted them as their team, and Butler embraced that.  This was a group of players that some people said would lose the first round game, and here they were fighting in the Final Four.  Who did they beat in the Final Four to get to the championship game?  Michigan State, another team that always seems to be there at the end.  With that way, I had so much faith going into the final game thinking Butler could do this.  Who was standing in the way there in the final game?  Duke, a team that everyone loves to hate.  Duke, the team that just always seems to be around at the end as well.  Duke, a team that had won four championships before wrapping that fifth one that night.

This was a back and forth game that even say Butler hit a point of not scoring for way too long.  There were moments that Butler could have taken a lead and really got this game in another direction, but they couldn't finish against some big men of Duke.  But there was the final moment, where Butler had a shot that just missed, and that's the moment that will always be remembered.  I still hate to watch this moment, but I still love to watch this moment.