Game of the Century

8:59 P.M.: And we are coming to you live from Sports Central at Battling the Current headquarters. I am joined by…looks around sheepishly…dear god do my parties suck.

9:00 P.M.: Yep, it’s live blog time once again as I will cover the NCAA basketball finals between Duke and Butler. It is David vs. Goliath and I am cheering for Goliath. Yes, I am pure evil.

9:01 P.M.: No, I am not kidding here, the Christian Laettner jersey has been unretired and I am once again wearing the Duke 32 jersey that I bought in college. It is a lot tighter now than it was before. It only comes out for title games and it does have a 2-1 record so we’ll see how it does tonight. I know that I wrote last week that I didn’t feel really connected to this team and I can’t say that I do so I will do my best to not be an obnoxious fan because I haven’t earned the right (plus I hate obnoxious Duke fans.) But, I really do admire Coach K and I would like to see him get his fourth title to move him past Bobby Knight and into the legendary level.

9:04 P.M.: Before the game starts I’ll mention that my Monday Weigh In is 209.5 pounds for a gain of 1 pound from last week. I gained a pound? How could that happen? I mean, I worked out once, kind of. I didn’t even eat meat on Friday. Time to kick it up a notch. Tomorrow.

9:11 P.M.: I’ve never quite understood the concept of “Prelude to a Championship.” No other sporting event has a prelude. It is the only time that a sporting event gets compared to a symphony.

9:16 P.M.: Can anyone explain to my why in the Enterprise Rental Car ad the guy let’s his mom drive? Dude looks to be nearing 30 at least. At that age you take the wheel, not your mom.

9:19 P.M.: Ok, it is really cool that Butler is the smallest school to make the title game since probably Indiana State. And that the players actually come from the same state that the school is located in (as opposed to Duke or West Virginia.)

9:22 P.M.: Well, if player introductions are any indications it is a rather partisan crowd in Indianapolis. And I might as well admit it now: the Butler head coach is younger than I am. Occasionally I think that I have accomplished some things with my life. Then I see someone like him and realize that I am completely wrong.

9:24 P.M.: Opening tip to Butler. I just lost 50 bucks on a prop bet. And Butler takes the lead costing me another 50.

9:25 P.M.: Duke takes the lead. All is right with the world.

9:29 P.M.: The Plumley brothers enter the game thus I believe setting a record for tall, non-mobile white guys on the floor at one time for a team playing for a title. Seriously, where the hell does Duke find all these guys? They never had depth in the frontcourt for the past decade. 6-4 Duke at the first television timeout. (Lance Thomas also has two fouls, which may become a factor later on.)

9:34 P.M.: A three second call? What the hell is this, a grade school game? Not that I wasn’t called for like a dozen or those in my lifetime.

9:36 P.M.: Zoubek draws a charge and doesn’t ruin the career of his opponent in a nice change of pace.

9:41 P.M.: It’s 16-14 Duke with a little over 11 minutes left. Butler plays hella good defense. And it’s not one of those trick zone defenses you use to disguise a lack of talent. They are just damn good defenders.

9:46 P.M.: One of the things about these games in domes that they use an elevated floor and that really bugs me. The benches are below the floor and the coaches sit on stools on the sideline. Coaches should stalk the sideline. Sitting on stools is for bad lounge singers.

9:49 P.M.: Butler leads by two with eight minutes left. Anxiety level: 2 out of 10. Also, Mr. Coke Zero guy: Dry your damn hair. You look like a total douche.

9:54 P.M.: The thing about Butler keeping this game close is that this isn’t one of those Duke squads that puts on those huge ten point runs in a minute on a team. They are really a grind it out type of team. If Butler keeps on hanging in with them they will be there at the end.

9:57 P.M.: And after I write that Duke goes on an 8-0 run and Butler wisely calls a timeout. But it still isn’t a killer run. It was an eight point run that featured defense, a jump ball and either a good move or a travel by Singler on a drive.

9:59 P.M.: I might as well start camping out for Iron Man 2 now. It just looks super cool. And the Butler players were in class today so I really like them for that.

10:04 P.M.: Someone needs to explain to Clark Kellogg that one team’s defensive rebounding is another team’s offensive rebounding. So if they are good at one it means that the other team is bad at the other. Still better than having to listen to Billy Packer though.

10:06 P.M.: Personally, I find it hysterical that the guy at Applebee’s who orders an under 500 calorie meal is doing so while drinking a 20 Oz. beer. Because, you know, beer doesn’t have calories. Or at least I hope to god that it doesn’t. Maybe that explains that weight gain.

10:10 P.M.: And it’s halftime with Duke leading 33 – 32. Really good first half by both teams with the refs deciding to let them play. I’d say that my anxiety level is at 4 right now. My feeling is that if Duke scores 70 they will win the game. Less than that and it is anyone’s game. Duke needs to get some rebounds though as Butler is getting a ton of second chance shots. But something in me has a bad feeling about this. Duke should be up by seven right now and they aren’t.

10:18 P.M.: The fan behind Greg Gumbel waving the sign that is cheering for Duke and the Patriots may quite possibly be the most annoying fan in the history of the planet. I’ll just make the assumption that he is a Red Sox fan as well. And it’s official that De’sean Butler absolutely destroyed his knee on Saturday night. I feel horrible about that because he seems to be a great guy and I hate the fact that his pro career was jeopardized in his last game. Hope he recovers.

10:25 P.M.: Great, Army of Darkness is on HBO. Now I’m going to have to decide what to watch.

10:32 P.M.: Here we go, twenty minutes to history. I’ll take Bruce Campbell over the army of skeletons in the other matchup.

10:34 P.M.: Well no one is going to say that Duke is getting calls tonight. No one is getting calls tonight. Guys on both teams are getting mugged tonight.

10:40 P.M.: 40 all with 15 minutes left. It honestly looks like Butler has seven people on the floor when they are on defense. I’ve never seen a ballhandler be double teamed and yet have no one open.

10:44 P.M.: Matt Howard of Butler, who has one of those mustaches you see on a high school senior, picks up his fourth foul. That is Butler’s main inside man out of there but Butler has been playing great when they have had to play small so I am not sure if that is a bad thing. Butler takes a one point lead to prove the point.

10:48 P.M.: It is so interesting that Jackie Earle Haley started his career as one of the kids in the Bad News Bears and then stayed out of the limelight until the past few years. He just had to wait until he grew into some new roles, which our characters like Freddy Kreuger and Rorshach. I really don’t want to know what happened to him after the Bad News Bears now that I think about it.

10:52 P.M.: And Duke draws one of its legendary Duke charging calls. Blame Dick Vitale for this. For years Vitale talked about how great Duke was at getting charges. Suddenly on every play under the basket Duke drew the charge. This has led to Duke guys flopping like mad trying to draw charges, which cost them the 99 title against UConn when the refs finally decided to stop calling it. Moral of the story: stop flopping unless you want to lose again.

11:03 P.M.: Always cool to find out that Butler has one of the Van Zants on the team. Skynyrd rules!!! Duke up four with a free throw to come with eight minutes left. Anxiety level is easily an 8 right now. I will say that this is one of the better championship games that I can remember in a long time. Probably since the Illinois – North Carolina game. Burn in hell Sean May, by the way.

11:09 P.M.: Kyle Singler is playing one hell of a game. Third big block of the night from a guy who isn’t known for it. Can’t convert on the other end though. Duke up five with under six minutes left. Butler keeps on making defensive stands when they have to. I really haven’t seen team defense like that for a long time.

11:14 P.M.: Lance Thomas takes down Matt Hayward and it looks bad but isn’t a flagrant foul. As the announcers say it is the right call but it sure looks like he got mugged. Butler cuts it to a one point game with five minutes left as Duke calls timeout. Anxiety level is now at 10. I’m freaking out right about now. I know I said that I didn’t really care about this team but hey, old habits die hard. That said, Butler is a freaking amazing team and if they win they completely deserve it.

11:17 P.M.: Another time out after Duke goes up three. Think about it. Butler had to go through Syracuse, Kansas State and Michigan State to make the title game. That means they had to play either the best or second best team in the Big East, Big 12 and Big Ten to play the best team in the ACC. That is a hell of an accomplishment for any team.

11:20 P.M.: Duke at the line with 3:16 left. I wish we didn’t have to go to commercials at this point. Now I have to deal with that weird British dude in the HP commercials talking to Dr. Dre. Talk about having a commercial that totally takes you out of a game.

11:23 P.M.: And it is a five point lead as we get another jump ball. Again, I can’t ever remember so many jump balls in a championship game. Hell, in any game. That is how tough the defense has been all night from both teams.

11:26 P.M.: Butler has lost their offensive rhythm and hasn’t made baskets in a few minutes. If it wasn’t for their tough defense, which just led to a travel call on Duke, this game would be decided. It is seven and a half minutes plus without a basket for Butler, which means that they just make one. Duke by three with the ball. Ninety seconds to go.

11:27 P.M.: Butler cuts it to one. 54 seconds left. Duke calls timeout. Anxiety level now 15 out of 10. I’m just going to write one entry from here on out. Duke loses the ball. Butler’s ball with 33 seconds left down one. No shot clock. Defense Duke. Defense. Out of bounds to Butler with 13.6 left. Butler calls timeout. Looks like we are going to be down to one shot for the title. Again, do we have to have commercials? Butler has to call timeout after not getting the ball inbounds. No timeouts left for Butler. I believe that I have stopped breathing. Hayward misses a challenged shot, Zoubek rebounds and is fouled with 3.6 left!!! Makes the first! Misses the second….Hayward from half court…..and hits the rim! Wow!!!!! How freaking close can you get!!!!

11:37 P.M.: I’m still not breathing. Duke 61 Butler 59. I wish my teacher, old friend and the guy who told me in 1987 to follow this team was still with us to see this moment. Four titles Kevin. I can’t believe it myself.

11:44 P.M.: One Shining Moment!!!

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Sally Timms “Cowboy Sally’s Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos”
2) Blue Rodeo “The Days in Between”
3) Webb Wilder “Hybrid Vigor”
4) The Subdudes “The Subdudes”
5) The Subdudes “Primitive Streak”