03/27/10

Butler is in the Final Four for the first time in school history.  Brad Stevens will be coaching in his first Final Four.

#5 seeds are now 4-1 vs. #2 seeds in the tournament

Year

Opponent

Score

Team

Score

OT

Round

1980

#2 Louisville

80

#5 Iowa

72

0

National Semifinals

1996

#5 Mississippi State

73

#2 Cincinnati

63

0

Elite Eight

2002

#5 Indiana

73

#2 Oklahoma

64

0

National Semifinals

2005

#5 Michigan State

94

#2 Kentucky

88

2

Elite Eight

2010

#5 Butler

63

#2 Kansas State

56

0

Elite Eight

Butler will be the 9th team to play the National Semifinals in its home city and the first since UCLA in 1972.  They are the 17th to play in its home state.  Michigan State played in Detroit, Michigan last year.

Butler is now a tournament best 4-0 when playing on Saturdays.

Brad Stevens is now the winningest tournament coach in Butler history passing Todd Lickliter with his 5th tournament victory.

Butler is now a tournament best 9-0 when allowing less than 65 points.

Kansas State is tied with Wake Forest for a tournament worst 0-2 vs. the Horizon League.  They also lost to Xavier in 1990 when they were a member of the Horizon League (then called the Midwestern Collegiate Conference).

Kansas State is now a tournament worst 0-3 when playing on March 27.

West Virginia is in the Final Four for the 2nd time in school history and their first since 1959.  Bob Huggins will be coaching in his second Final Four and his first with West Virginia.  He coached Cincinnati in the Final Four in 1992.

Bob Huggins becomes the 14th coach to coach two or more schools to the Final Four.

The other coaches are:
- Rick Pitino (Providence, Kentucky, Louisville)
- Forddy Anderson (Bradley, Michigan State)
- Gene Bartow (Memphis, UCLA)
- Larry Brown (UCLA, Kansas)
- John Calipari (Massachusetts, Memphis)
- Hugh Durham (Florida State, Georgia)
- Jack Gardner (Kansas State, Utah)
- Lou Henson (New Mexico State, Illinois)
- Frank McGuire (North Carolina, St. John's)
- Lute Olson (Iowa, Arizona)
- Lee Rose (Charlotte, Purdue)
- Eddie Sutton (Arkansas, Oklahoma State)
- Roy Williams (Kansas, North Carolina)

With their losses today, Kentucky has the most Elite Eight losses all-time with 19 and Kansas State is tied for second all-time with 8.  (Tied with Villanova)

With the loss, Kentucky extends their longest Final Four drought in school history to 12 years.