Being a fan is one of the best parts about following sports. You ride your team's run like a roller coaster throughout the season, seemingly always starting at the top and nearly always ending up at the bottom. In the NCAA tournament, because there are so many teams and games, fans will usually have to find reasons to root for one team or the other when they otherwise wouldn't have a side to root for.
I like to think of the NCAA Tournament as having ‘tiers’ of fan-hood.
- Level One: Your favorite team(s). There are two types of teams that qualify for the level one tier: the team you’ve been rooting for since you were little (in my case, UNC) or your (or a family member’s) alma mater; in my case Purdue. In the NCAA tournament, and especially the Final Four there is a really good chance that none of the four teams include a Level One team.
- Level Two: A conference team or a proximity team. More on these later.
- Level Three: You know someone that goes/went there. This is the type of mediocre interest that you say "Eh, I don't really care, but my buddy went there so I'll root for them". Temple was my only Level Three team in this year's tournament. It didn't end well.
- Level Four: The random underdog. This your classic "1-seed vs. 16-seed" type of game. You may want the 1-seed to win for your bracket's purpose, but it's always fun to root for the Arkansas Pine-Bluff's against the Duke's anyway.
This weekend’s Final Four, for a lot of basketball fans in the state of Indiana, feature a match-up of two “Level Two” teams: Michigan State vs. Butler. Fans of Big Ten teams that live in Indiana have to choose between their conference and their state’s representative. Fans of Valparaiso basketball have to choose between rooting for their conference and their biggest rival (and against their state's team) or for their state's team and conference representative .
So who are you rooting for? Let’s break it down:
Reasons to Root for Michigan State
The Big Ten
If you're a Big Ten fan, you root for Michigan State because a rising tide lifts all ships, right? The Big Ten is often dismissed as a lower-quality style of basketball compared to the ACC or Big Ten. Even this year, pundits were crediting the Big 12 over the Big 10. The thing is: Big Ten teams always come through though in tournament time, with 3 teams in the Sweet 16 this season (2 for the Big East, 2 for the Big 12). In fact, out of the last 10 NCAA Championships, 5 have featured Big Ten teams.
If the Big Ten wins and gets another team in the championship game, that means the conference is tougher and it should be getting more credit nationally. The Big Ten’s only chance at the title is through Michigan State, so we have to root for them, right?
Tom Izzo
Tom Izzo, I would argue, is the best coach in college basketball. He gets further in the tournament each year with less talent than anyone else in the major programs. His teams make their free throws, are good defenders, and play hard the whole game. It’s tough to root against Tom Izzo, so why not root for him in the Final Four?
The Underdog Factor
Psh… big bad Michigan State, last year’s championship game runner-up, playing against the Horizon League’s Butler, a fifth seed in the Final Four? Believe it or not, the Spartans are 1.5 point underdogs in the match-up. We love to root for the underdog, so why not root for the underdog in this match-up?
Reasons to Root for Butler
State of Indiana
New York, Boston, Chicago, and Kansas all claim to be the home of basketball, but many of us really know that the true home of basketball in the world is right here in Indiana. The Butler Bulldogs, who play in the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse right in Indianapolis. I challenge you to name a team that represents “Indiana Basketball” any more than Butler.
I mean, come on. Hoosiers! Right?
Young, Up-and-Comers
Butler has the “it” coach right now in 33-year old Head Coach Brad Stevens, who has a career 88-14 record coaching Butler. They have the “it” player in Gordon Hayward, who went from relative obscurity on a national scale to comparisons of Mike Dunleavy and talk of being a lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Hayward is leading the team in points, rebounds, minutes played, and is third on the team in assists.
Butler is also quickly joining Gonzaga on the “not quite ‘major’ schools, but they’ve been so good for so long that we can’t call them ‘mid-majors’ any longer” level. This is rarefied air for a Horizon League team.
The Underdog Factor
Butler may be favored by Vegas in this game (by a mere 1.5 points, a “stay away” line if I’ve ever seen one), but let’s not kid ourselves. They’re the little guy in this Final Four, with Michigan State, West Virginia, and Duke.
I’ve made my decision: I’m rooting for a Butler win. As much as I want the Big Ten in another championship game, Butler is too good of a team and has too good of a story to root against. The fact that Valpo will be in the same conference as (and rivals with) an NCAA-championship game participant is really the deciding factor.
Go Butler. Down with MSU.
Who are you rooting for?