COMMENTARY: Dogged D keeps Bulldogs close but still no cigar

INDIANAPOLIS - It wasn't drama flushed from a Hollywood manuscript.

This national championship climax was too good for that.

Real life, unlike reel life, often ends in heartache.

Butler's Gordon Hayward twice believed in the final 4 seconds Monday night that he assured himself a permanent place among the many basketball legends the state of Indiana has harvested through the years. But both times, desperation disappointingly rolled off the rim.

"I thought I had it," Hayward said. "I thought we were going to win."

Butler almost did it.

But if it's possible to stand heroically even in defeat, Butler did accomplish that.

Duke won the national championship, but the Bulldogs won the nation's hearts in a 61-59 thriller that was a favorable roll away from possibly the biggest upset in NCAA tournament championship game history.

"We were in a state of shock afterwards," said Butler guard Ronald Nored, "because there wasn't a moment near the end when we didn't think we wouldn't win. We had two chances, but couldn't get it to fall. That's not the storybook ending we wanted."

As much as we tried avoiding the "Hoosiers" cinematic parallels, there was yet another scary similarities with an underdog team in the huddle drawing up a final shot for the title and the team's star confident that he would make the shot.

A "Hoosiers" ending would've been great.

There were concerns that if there were any film adaptation of this game, it might have been a sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" because this could've become downright cannibalistic.

But Butler followed the same script it had all season - dogged defense with a physicality that doesn't discreetly cross the line into excessive occasionally. Duke had its chances to pull away several times, but Butler stayed true to its nickname - the pesky little bulldog with more fight than its size might suggest.

Nobody was disappointed Monday night. It was a game worthy of the hype.

Let's just say . . . it was nuts in Indy on Monday.

Butler threw a pep rally at the downtown's epicenter - Monument Circle - that conservatively drew about 1,000 spectators around lunch hour. In a span of 48 hours, Butler grew some extra alumni. Some acknowledged that they blew off work Monday. One secretary told me she wasn't concerned about getting into trouble with her boss for straying from the office.

Why?

Her boss was standing beside her, replete in full Butler blue gear.

"Beware of Dawgs" signs were standard office window equipment Monday. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but these folks actually believed they were a witness to destiny.

Butler wasn't Cinderella.

But why let the facts stand in the path of a good sentimental story, right?

David vs. Goliath didn't apply, but there's nothing wrong with a good vs. evil premise.

Sometimes, the bad guys win.