In this past week's national championship, Butler's Gordon Hayward was just a matter of inches from becoming arguably the greatest hero in Indiana sports history. Hayward not only had one, but two opportunities to win the national championship game against Duke. Deep in the depths of my soul, a little fire, actually a holocaust burns on the hatred I possess for the Duke Blue Devils. They are the Cathedral Fighting Irish of College Basketball, overrated, rich, preppy white kids. Anyways, back to the shots. Sports Science showed just how close Hayward's shot was to going in. It had the correct angle of projection and velocity. However, had the shot been 6 inches to the right, it would have given the ball a chance at going in and sending the state of Indiana back into a state of Hoosier Hysteria not felt in recent years.
Years before Gordon Hayward ever arrived at Butler, he almost quit basketball forever. Why you ask? Because he was a 5'11 freshman on Brownsburg's basketball team. Gordon, also an All-State tennis player in high school, thought he was too short to play basketball in colege so he was going to focus on tennis. However, in the summer going into his sophomore he shot up 9 inches, making him a 6'9 force and a member of the U-19 Team USA basketball team. Just think about how inches affected this situation. Without those 9 inches, Indiana basketball and college basketball as a whole would not have the same.
Yes, I always wonder what things would be like if an event would have occured a second earlier or a centimeter closer. I went to the Butler v. Duke game. I had the most promising angle for all of Haywards's shots in those last few seconds. To me, all of the shots were "good". I remember shouting "IT'S GOOD!" after his first shot. After the game was over, my father and I sat in disbelief as the Butler Bull Dog's crawled off the court while the victorious Duke team held their golden trophy. To this day, I wonder what would happen if Hayward made on of his last second shots...
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