Five Teams That Could Be the Next Butler

Written by Daniel Evans on 10 April 2010

Butler’s magical run in this year’s NCAA Tournament has sparked discussions like George Mason’s did a few years ago. The question of “Which team will be the next George Mason” has changed to “Who could be next season’s Butler?” I’ve helped begin the discussion by listing five teams below that I believe can be the next Butler.

But first, I must explain the qualifications. Butler has been a very good team for about a decade, but the Bulldogs were never considered a national title contender despite getting a five seed. UNLV, a very good team playing in the Mountain West team, is a team I did not consider because the Rebels have won a national title in the last 20 years and have been considered a national power before.

All of the teams below play in stronger mid major conferences, unlike Butler, but it’s very hard to find a team in a conference like the Horizon League that looks like it could make the national title game any time recently.

Rank	Name	Comments
1	Xavier Musketeers	If Jordan Crawford returns, Chris Mack’s Musketeers could be the second “mid major” team to go from constatntly very good to the Final Four. A lot of people do not consider Xavier a mid major (I don’t), but those same people would be surprised if they made the Final Four. It’s the Butler story all over again.
2	Gonzaga Bulldogs	Mark Few’s squad has been a nationally known team for years, but has never made the Final Four. Therefore, despite being extremely good for a decade, Gonzaga now has less on its tournament resume than Butler does. With Elias Harris back with Stephen Gray and Robert Sacre, this could be the Zags year for a run.
3	New Mexico Lobos	The Lobos will likely bring back Darington Hobson, the guy who sparked New Mexico’s best regular season ever. If New Mexico can replace Ramon Martinez–and it looks like they can with the scoring of UCLA transfer Drew Gordon–New Mexico could have another great season.
4	Temple Owls	Some, like SI.com’s Luke Winn, believe Temple is a top ten team next season. Losing leading scorer Ryan Brooks will make that tough to achieve. However, the Owls defense is very similar to Butler’s, and we know how far defense took the Bulldogs.
5	BYU Cougars	The Cougars lose some key pieces off of one of their best teams in years, but the biggest piece–guard Jimmer Fredette, will likely be back. Fredette reminds a lot of people of Stephen Curry because he has shown flashes of getting hot and carrying BYU to victories.