There are two reactions to Butler’s not-that-surprising run to the Final Four – elation or an uncomfortable, grudging acceptance.  Having dismissed the Bulldogs in December after they had been manhandled by Georgetown at the Jimmy V Classic in New York City, most of the national college basketball talking head syndicate has retreated to the fallback “Well, Butler was a top-10 team in the preseason, so this was not surprising.”  Sorry boys, I remember everyone in the Syndicate very quickly abandoning the Butler ship, while the more astute followers of college hoops simply hoped the disappointing nonconference showing would be a lesson for Butler once NCAA Tournament play started.  You said that Butler didn’t stand a chance of beating Syracuse or Kansas State, and you were wrong.  You can’t come back to the party once you’ve left.

Butler’s treatment this week will be comparable to how the major news networks would treat a nut-job Third Party candidate at a Presidential Debate.  One can only imagine a slightly disgusted Diane Sawyer swiveling her chair towards Stephen Colbert and asking “Mr. Colbert – can you please tell the country how you would address the land-use disputes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts?”  Do you think these people really want Butler to be here?  It’s one thing to have a Cinderella 13-seed Butler crashing the Final Four and winning the hearts of the country (“What a cute underdog story!”) but its an entirely different thing for a 32-win, Fifth-Seeded, legit National Championship contender to arrive in Indianapolis and have as good a chance to win the sport’s Holy Grail as any of their competitors.  Butler is not known, but it should be by now.  The media had an entire year to watch their games, to study how well they move the ball, play defense and get their teammates good shots, but they didn’t put in the time.  Its too late now to fake expertise.