Sports Then and Now

Basketball can be serious business to a lot of people, and NCAAB (National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball) can be an extremely important part of college basketball for many fans. Even before games start, it is easy to focus on future NCAAB picks, and there is sometimes money to be made in making NCAAB basketball predictions of your own. But why do it, and what is it for?

Why should you make NCAA basketball predictions?

Predictions aren’t just a personal preference that you use to focus on a team that you like: they can be an important way of trying to identify possible upsets and underdogs and can really draw you into the experience. For some people, they are also a good way to make money, focusing on personal or ‘professional’ bets before the games have even begun.

Beginners and newcomers to the idea of predictions need to remember that there is no such thing as a “100% chance” of a particular result – there is a reason that upsets have become so popular, with many players actually hoping for them simply because of the drama and excitement that they can cause.

Head Coach Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs are heading back to the Final Four.

Since the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, a school has reached the Final Four in consecutive years a total of 13 times. The list includes many of the usual suspects, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina (twice), Michigan State (twice), Florida and UCLA among others. After their overtime victory Saturday night against Florida, the list now also includes the Butler Bulldogs.

As a private liberal arts school near Indianapolis with roughly 4,500 students (undergrad and graduate), Butler would seem to be an unlikely candidate to be known as a basketball powerhouse.

Yet, Butler is now clearly the poster child for a new era in college basketball where the gap in talent and ability between schools from the “power” conferences and the rest of college basketball is quickly shrinking.

Unlike the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, which was the first non-power conference school to reach consecutive Final Fours from 1990-1991, Butler is not creating success by separating the two words student and athlete.

Instead, Butler has created a culture of success on the court while maintaining a high level of academic success. Read the rest of this entry →