Hometown favorite Butler draws 30,000 for practice
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Butler didn’t bring any tape measures to Friday’s shootaround.
They sure could have.
Nearly 30,000 fans — about four times their average home attendance — showed up to see this year’s NCAA tourney surprise team, giving the Bulldogs a real-life sense of the movie “Hoosiers.”
“Yesterday, I didn’t think it was a big deal to shoot in a dome because we’re still shooting at 10-foot goals, and the lines are all the same,” coach Brad Stevens said. “But I’m glad we got to shoot with a lot of people in here.”
Butler, the hometown team, drew the most fans as the Bulldogs draw support from all corners of the state.
Mark Beard, who teaches government classes at Connersville High School, handed out blue-and-white pencils in honor of former student Matt Howard. The Bulldogs center was honored with his own day this week at Connersville, and Beard, who had Friday off because of a religious holiday, made the 66-mile drive to Indy and got a seat in the third row.
“We’re all basketball fans in Connersville; it’s such a big basketball town, so to get someone so far is exciting,” Beard said. “The Howard family is so big in town. They have 10 kids, the dad delivers mail, the mom helps out at the school, everyone knows them and everyone wants to see him.”
The fans gave the Bulldogs a prolonged standing ovation when they walked on and off the court.
During the 50-minute shootaround, Butler did what it could to entertain. Near the end of practice, the team gathered in a circle and started laughing. The reason?
“We were having a big debate about whether we going to wave or go over to the crowd, and coach was teasing us that we were afraid to go into the crowd,” senior Willie Veasley said.
They took the safe road — waving.
SLAPPED: Joe Mazzulla insists it was nothing more than a simple slap of the floor. For Duke’s players, it could have been a slap in the face.
Two years ago in West Virginia’s second-round tournament victory over the Blue Devils, the Mountaineers’ point guard was seen giving the court a palms-down slap.
The gesture could have been considered a jab at one of Duke’s signature moves on defense, which always fired up the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium when it was performed by point guards from Steve Wojciechowski to Greg Paulus.
Mazzulla says he didn’t mean anything by it.
“You don’t think you get a chance to play Duke that many times in your career, and they’re such a great team with such a great history,” he said. “You get caught up in the emotions. It was a spur of the moment-type thing.”
The Duke players downplayed the floor-slap, saying there’s no use getting worked up about something that happened two years ago.
“We’re really not using that as a payback-type thing,” guard Jon Scheyer said. “But for us, of course we want to beat a team that knocked us out. Who wouldn’t?”
The big question: Does Mazzulla plan on slapping the floor during the rematch Saturday night?
“Depends on how the game goes,” he said with a laugh.
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OUR HOUSE? CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz was trying to compliment Michigan State coach Tom Izzo when he told him the Spartans are the second-winningest team in Lucas Oil Stadium’s short history — behind only the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
Technically, Michigan State is even better than that.
The Spartans have the best winning percentage of any team inside the hulking venue.
The Colts lost their first two regular-season games at the stadium but haven’t lost since.
Meanwhile, the Spartans have a winning percentage of 1.000 in the building, going 2-0 in the 2009 Midwest Regional.
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CURRY-ING FAVOR: There’s another Curry in the NCAA tournament, but he won’t show up on any highlight videos this year.
Seth Curry, the younger brother of former Davidson tournament darling Stephen Curry, is on Duke’s roster but is sitting out this season after transferring from Liberty.
Once he’s eligible in the fall, he’ll be among the leading candidates to replace graduating guard Jon Scheyer in the lineup.
So far, his influence has been limited to mirroring opposing teams’ shooters and testing the Blue Devils’ defense during practice.
“It’s good, having a role model to watch,” Seth Curry said of his big brother. “Going through the college experience, and all the problems he’s gone through, I am learning from that. He’s giving me advice on everything I’m doing right. I just look up to him.”
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TOP TERP: Maryland senior Greivis Vasquez was selected as the winner of the Bob Cousy Award, presented annually to college basketball’s top point guard.
Vasquez, a native of Venezuela, averaged 19.6 points, 6.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds for the Terrapins, who finished 24-9 and shared the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title with Duke. Vasquez was selected the ACC’s player of the year.
He ranks second on Maryland’s all-time lists in points (2,171) and assists (772) and is the only player in ACC history to record at least 2,000 points, 700 assists and 600 rebounds in his career.
The award, presented by The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and named in honor of the former Boston Celtics great, started with an initial list of 73 candidates from Division I, II and III and was trimmed during the season to 20, 11 and a final six.
Vasquez is the third ACC player to win the award in its six years, joining North Carolina’s Raymond Felton in 2005 and Ty Lawson last season.
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BULLY FOR VARNARDO: Mississippi State center Jarvis Varnado has won the inaugural Lefty Driesell Award as the nation’s top Division I defender.
The 6-foot-9 Brownsville, Tenn., native finished his career as the NCAA’s blocks leader with 564 and is the only player to have 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 blocks.
Varnado called the award “humbling.”
This season he led the Bulldogs to 24 wins and the Southeastern Conference Western Division title, and finished with 170 blocks to tie his own SEC record.
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SURPRISE CALLER: Butler forward Gordon Hayward hasn’t had many of those wow moments this week.
But he got one Tuesday night after a voice mail from tennis star Andy Roddick.
“He’s just such a superstar, so for him to call, that was really cool,” the sophomore said. “For me to be able to hear that, was just really... you know, I didn’t really think about it at first and then I had to listen to it again. He said ’Hey, Gordon this is Andy Roddick’ and I was just like ’Wow!’
In fact, Hayward, who was nearly as good at tennis as he was in basketball in high school, had to listen to it twice to make sure.
“He just said ’Congratulations, I’ve been watching you guys, good luck on Saturday and we’re rooting for you,”’ Hayward said.
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TEAM WOODEN: Two players at the Final Four — Duke’s Jon Scheyer and West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler — made the 10-man John R. Wooden Award All-American team.
Other members were Sherron Collins of Kansas, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall of Kentucky, Wesley Johnson of Syracuse, Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds, Ohio State’s Evan Turner, Greivis Vasquez of Maryland and Oklahoma State’s James Anderson.
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AP Sports Writers Joedy McCreary, Michael Marot and Jim O’Connell, and Associated Press Writer Chris Talbott contributed to this report.