Biblical Matchup

It's interesting that tonight's National Championship game should fall the day after Easter. After all, it's the perfect match-up of David vs. Goliath.

Both Duke and Butler are basketball schools that are known for basketball. That's about where the similarities end:

Duke has three titles and countless Final Four appearances in the last thirty years. Butler has, including this trip, one.

Duke has Coach K and a pile of high school All-Americans that were plucked from New Jersey to Oregon including Jon Scheyer, who looks a little like the evil guy from Live Free or Die Hard. Butler has a star player who looks like he should still be in high school.

Duke Duke spends around $650,000 per basketball player in the program. Butler spends less than $350,000 on the entire team.

Duke is a high profile program that elicits strong feelings of loyalty or hatred throughout the country. Butler has a cute little bulldog wearing a jersey.

As much as we hear about the Cinderella story in college basketball, she rarely makes it to the final weekend. The title game usually involves names like North Carolina, Kansas, and Connecticut. Yet here is Butler, the classic mid-major. Not pretty, just effective.

Keep in mind, of course, that Butler was ranked in the top 20 pre-season. This team didn't just come out of nowhere. But the name just doesn't roll off the tongue when it comes to college basketball championships.

Tonight will feature the most hated team in college basketball looking to crush the spunky underdog who is playing just miles from the campus. The crowd will be rooting for Butler, most Americans will be rooting for Butler, but Duke won't care. They have the ability to crush Butler and the underdog dream by halftime.

The odds are against the Bulldogs, but if it was evenly matched, then we wouldn't have such a biblical match-up.

It's time for the underdog to bark or go home.