Indy having no problem choosing between Duke and Butler

It’s a title game no one could have predicted and a matchup that couldn’t be any more polarizing to the City of Indianapolis.

On one side, the pride of the state, the beloved Butler Bulldogs.

On the other side, arguably the most disdained team in the nation, the Duke Blue Devils.

While there aren’t many guarantees for Monday night, there are some good bets. One is that Butler fans will likely outnumber Duke fans exponentially, setting up an even fiercer home-court advantage than the one the hometown Bulldogs enjoyed Saturday.

“I think it will be pretty one-sided,” Butler student Carrie Twyman said. “There might be a few Duke fans, but the majority of Indianapolis is going to get behind Butler.”

Brad Beagle, a fellow Bulldog supporter, said he expects almost all of college basketball to jump on Butler’s bandwagon now that the field has been trimmed to two teams.

“There are Duke fans everywhere, but there are also Duke haters everywhere, and I think we’ll pick up all of those,” he said.

Duke students Shivam Desai and Jacob Wood are well aware of this predicament. The two made the drive from their Durham, N.C. campus for this weekend’s festivities and couldn’t help but notice a troubling pattern once they get closer and closer to the Circle City.

“Driving in was a little intimidating,” Wood said. “Every five seconds there was a huge Butler sign. Someone even painted a giant Bulldog on a 30-foot sign.”

Desai and Wood said they know the Blue Devils are outnumbered, but they also realize that their team, like the New York Yankees, is used to being the team everyone loves to hate.

“We sort of thrive on the opposition,” Desai said. “Coach K is really good at getting his team to focus in and use that negative energy and turn it into something positive.”

Although they’ll be pulling hard for the Blue Devils come Monday, the two Duke students said they have a hard time rooting against the Bulldogs.

“I obviously hope Duke wins,” Wood said. “But in the broader spectrum, if Butler wins, it would be really good for college basketball.”

That much has been the consensus this week, as the Bulldogs continue to gain exposure while simultaneously picking up wins.

Butler coach Brad Stevens admitted to being a bit star-struck by the home crowd once stepping on to Lucas Oil Stadium’s hardwood Saturday, but he soon forced the bewilderment to subside.

“I tried to do my best not to focus on the 71,000 fans,” Stevens said, “Because once you do, you forget about the 10 guys on the court.”

But the Bulldogs won’t be able to completely block out the cheers, ones that rivaled the decibels Peyton Manning and the Colts typically draw in the same stadium on Sundays.

When Butler star Gordon Hayward stepped on the Final Four floor for the first time Saturday, he said the moment took him a minute to digest.

“I was just looking around with these guys thinking, ‘This is it. This is what we’ve all played for. This is where we should be. This is where we want to be,’” he said. “I was excited to get out there after this whole week of craziness and was just ready to play.”

The anticipation will be even harder to curb with Monday’s national championship game lurking.

As the excitement builds in Indianapolis, in and outside of Lucas Oil Stadium, so too does the wall between Bulldog and Blue Devil loyalists.

Butler fan Brad Werland said "most people saw" the doodle of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in some early copies of Friday’s Indianapolis Star.

“And I don’t think we’re too ashamed of it, either.”

-Matt Dollinger, IU Final Four News Bureau