Final Four

**^{This was doggone close to some serious March Madness!}**

Back in 2010, Butler University was a cute little over-achieving team from the Horizon League. It had the baby-faced coach in Brad Stevens and, thanks a roster filled with returnees from the previous season (in which it won the Horizon League regular-season championship, earned a nine seed in the NCAA Tournament, and finished the season ranked No. 25 in the final polls), it debuted at No. 10 in the preseason rankings. It remained ranked throughout (dropping to as low as No. 24 and rising to as high as No. 8) and went 18-0 in league play, won both games in the Horizon League Tournament, and entered the NCAA Tournament as a five seed in the West Region.

Still, few expected Butler to go on the run it did, beating the University of Texas-El Paso 77-59, Murray State 54-52, Syracuse 63-59, and Kansas State 63-56 in Regional play to earn its first trip to the NCAA Final Four which just so happened to be in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, a scant 6.2 miles from Butler’s home of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Butler's Gordon Hayward's last-second shot against Duke in the 2010 NCAA Championship Game. — ^{Butler’s Gordon Hayward launches a final second shot from just inside halfcourt in the closing moment’s of its 2010 NCAA Championship loss to Duke, 61-59. Do you recognize that Duke player (30)? Yep, that’s current Blue Devils’ head coach, Jon Scheyer. (Photo by John Biever/Sports Illustrated)}

In its semifinal matchup, Butler defeated defending national runner-up, Michigan State University (the only Big Ten school Butler had never played), 52-50.

Comparisons to the 1986 film, Hoosiers, abounded as tiny Butler (enrollment about 4,500) was the smallest school to play the National Championship since Jacksonville in 1970. Duke, itself a private school with only about 6,500 students, but with three NCAA Championships on its resume at the time, was the David in this David and Goliath story.

A back-and-forth game, it came down to the waning minutes and, utlimately, Butler sophomore Gordon Hayward‘s halfcourt heave that was the subject of this week’s Fan Teaser.

Here’s a wonderful 10-year reflection story (March 2020) from Jim Boeheim, Frank Martin, Tom Izzo, and Mike Krzyzewski (the coaches of Butler’s final four opponents during its tournament run).

As though to prove 2010 was no fluke, Butler – now without Hayward who was the No. 9 draft pick by the Utah Jazz – played in the 2011 National Championship Game as well, losing to UConn, 53-41, in Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

^{The final two minutes of game action from the 2010 NCAA Championship Game.}

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

**^{Are we dreaming or will we know the NCAA}**
^{Men’s Final Four by the time this weekend
is complete?}

As part of the Houston Cougars’ Phi Slamma Jamma crew, Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon was the man in the middle for all three of the University of Houston’s most-recent Final Four teams (1982, 1983, and 1984).

A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon’s post presence – especially on the defensive end – immediately gave veteran Houston Coach Guy Lewis a legitimate shot at a NCAA Championship.

In Olajuwon’s first season, the Cougars fell to eventual champion, North Carolina (led by Michael Jordan), 68-63, in the semifinals. In this second season, Houston dispatched Louisville in the semis, 94-81, before falling to North Carolina State on Lorenzo Charles’ putback dunk of Dereck Wittenberg’s miss. In 1994, the Cougars reached the finals by beating Virginia, 49-47 in overtime, before losing to the Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown Hoyas, 84-75, in the title tilt.

Despite averaging a rather pedesterian 13.3 points per game during his three collegiate seasons, Olajuwon went No. 1 in the 1984 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets where he went on to star for 17 years before finishing his career in Toronto during the 2001-02 season. Along the way he won the NBA MVP in 1994, won NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, was named to the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in History in 1996-97, and the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021-22.

Hakeem Olajuwon — **^{Houston Cougars’ center Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon guards North Carolina State’s Thurl Bailey}**
**^{during the 1983 NCAA Championship game in “The Pit” in Albuquerque, NM. NC State went on to win}**
**^{on a putback dunk by Lorenzo Charles at the buzzer, 54-52. (NCAA Photo)}**

Just to review, The Fan Teaser comes courtesy of longtime buddy, Pat Schutte. The cropped photo below and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you by the early kickoff on Sunday.

The Sports Fan Project

The Fan Teaser: Week 125 Solution

The Fan Teaser: Week 24 Solution