They didn’t mean any disrespect, really. After the 2001 NCAA tournament pairing was announced, Wake Forest’s players were asked what they knew about the Butler Bulldogs.
Nothing, they replied. Never heard of them. Didn’t know where the school was.
Talk about throwing raw meat to hungry Dawgs ...
“They were chippy and ready,” recalled Brad Stevens, then director of basketball operations in his first year on Butler’s staff. “They were ready to roll. It was going to be hard to beat us that day.”
Hard? More like impossible.
Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most peculiar games in March Madness history.