Butler's Big Dance

The Butler Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA National Championship basketball game against Duke University upon defeating Michigan State on April 3, 2010. With only 4,500 students, Butler was the smallest school to play for a national championship since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Coached by Brad Stevens -- just three years into his position as head basketball coach -- the undefeated Bulldogs were a hometown team, playing before a hometown crowd on the national stage. Two days later, Butler lost narrowly to Duke, 61--59, but their run for the championship had become a national phenomenon. From her vantage point as a Butler professor, acclaimed writer Susan Neville observed (and participated in) Hoosier Hysteria firsthand. In Butler's Big Dance, she intertwines her recollections of the events with interviews, anecdotes, and photographs to bring readers a taste of the on-campus and courtside excitement of the Bulldogs' David-and-Goliath bid for the national title.

Susan S. Neville, second from left, is a native Hoosier and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Butler University. She is author of Iconography: A Writer's Meditation (IUP, 2003) and Sailing the Inland Sea (IUP, 2007).

Foreword	p. xi
Preface: On Joy	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
On Fire	p. 1
The Summit	p. 5
The Bookstore	p. 6
T-Shirts	p. 9
Why Basketball?	p. 11
Beneath the Hoosier Sky	p. 11
Toward a Theory of Indiana Basketball	p. 14
On Being a Fan	p. 19
How Surreal Was It?	p. 25
Another Voice: An Alum	p. 26
On Teaching	p. 26
On History	p. 31
Hinkle Fieldhouse	p. 32
Lightness of Being	p. 37
The Dance	p. 39
The Dancers	p. 44
Other Voices: Almost Religious	p. 44
Student Athlete I	p. 47
Basketball Stars	p. 47
Physics	p. 54
Other Voices: Rituals	p. 54
Chant	p. 56
Time Delay	p. 56
Student Athlete II	p. 58
Student Athlete III	p. 59
Awe	p. 61
Gordon Hayward's Decision: On Vocation	p. 61
The Championship Game	p. 66
Another Voice: Alum II	p. 73
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline	p. 73
A Blessing	p. 76
Epilogue: Brad Stevens Basketball Camp	p. 79
Afterword: What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Surreal?	p. 83
Another Voice: Butler University President Bobby Fong's Speech to the Team after Their Loss in the Championship Game	p. 87
The Scores, in Case You've Forgotten!	p. 89
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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