Column: We’ve seen this movie before

Maybe the references get old.

You can only say the “Butler did it” line about once per year and the whole David vs. Goliath thing has been used up.

Even the “Hoosiers” comparisons — which are eerily similar — are so 2010.

I mean, really, what’s left to say about the Butler Bulldogs?

It’s a team that knows how to win basketball games, and it knows how to win when it matters.

And so, here we go again.

Butler, the team that came a few inches short of winning the NCAA championship last March, is once again one of the tourney darlings, and that’s partly due to how it won.

On the opening day of the tournament, Butler survived Old Dominion with a last-second (er, last-tenth of a second) tip-in basket from senior Matt Howard.

Saturday’s contest vs. No. 1-seed Pittsburgh will be remembered for its weirdness — two of the stupidest fouls in basketball were committed in the game’s final two seconds. But if you lop off those final seconds or consider them a wash, Butler comes out on top either way.

That makes for a special return to the Sweet 16.

If you can allow, let me use one last “Hoosiers” reference for Butler. Rather, let me steal from the story which “Hoosiers” is based around.

It was Bobby Plump’s 1954 “Milan Miracle” that won the Indiana high school state championship. There’s your Hollywood movie.

But the film fails to mention the prior year, the year seemingly lost to history. The 1952-53 Milan Indians met the community’s high expectations and won the regional and semi-state titles. It was a “final four” loss to South Bend Central that kept Milan from the title game.

The 1952-53 season set the stage. Bobby Plump and Co. filled the bill the next year.

And yes, it’s far-fetched, but who’s to think that with Butler, the stage was only set last year? And that there’s something even more magical, more Hollywood-ready in store?

For Butler, the odds were it would never — yes, never — get back to the Final Four. The Final Four tends to be reserved for the Dukes and North Carolinas and Kansases of the world. As good as Butler has been — and will continue to be — another trip seemed even less likely than the one before.

When a team like Butler or 2006 George Mason invades the Final Four, we assume it’s a one-time visit.

Time to think again.

This Butler team is two games — two winnable games — away from its second consecutive trip to the hallowed Final Four. Wouldn’t you take Wisconsin and Brigham Young or Florida for opponents compared to last year’s Syracuse and Kansas State?

Butler has the calm, cool and collected coach. While I tend to nervously pace around my living room during close basketball games, Butler’s Brad Stevens sat calmly on the sidelines as if he was at practice.

It took a while for the Butler players to buy into this return visit to the Final Four — they were 14-9 midway through the season. But now, this team is clicking on offense and on defense.

Sure, odds are it’ll be a Duke or an Ohio State or some other power school celebrating on Championship Monday, but as long as Butler’s still alive, there’s room to believe.

— nmhart@indiana.edu