Seriously. How can you not love this team?
Despite the general mania, Butler’s players have been expected to do what Butler players do. Namely, go to class. That will remain the modus operandi straight through the week, when the school will shuttle players to and from Lucas Oil news conferences and practices to campus for class.
“When the kids went to Salt Lake City [for the West Regional], they had backpacks,” Plump said. “And they had books in them.”
Butler players live in regular student housing; no jock dorm here. And Stevens bends the practice schedule around class schedules, which necessitates regular pre-dawn practices. “We’re all regular students like everyone else,” said point guard Shelvin Mack. “At some schools athletes are treated better, or treated differently, but not at Butler.”
Which might be why so many of the Bulldogs are not one-dimensional jocks. Starters Matt Howard and Gordon Hayward were recently named academic All-Americans — Howard (3.77 GPA in finance) on the first team, Hayward (3.31 GPA in computer engineering) on the third team. And Stevens told the story Tuesday of guard Ronald Nored running for freshman class president almost immediately upon his arrival at the school.
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