Upsets ruled the day Thursday in the NCAA Tournament, shattering brackets around the nation and pushing four lower-seeded teams through to the Round of 32.
That didn’t surprise Brad Stevens one bit.
The Boston Celtics coach, who made a name for himself at Butler, told reporters Friday in San Antonio that in many ways, it’s the underdogs who have the upper hand in March.
“It’s hard to wear white in the tournament,” Stevens said at shootaround before the Celtics’ matchup with the Spurs, via Celtics.com, “because the tournament was built on the underdog. … If you’re that higher seed, you can feel that pressure coming late in the game if it’s a close game. So, it doesn’t surprise me at all. It doesn’t surprise me at all when I see these results, because you know they’re going to be close games.
“One team is playing free with nothing to lose, and the other team feels like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. That’s part of the human nature element of the buildup that we’ve created with the tournament.”
The games certainly were close Thursday, with a record five being decided by a single point.
Butler wasn’t a ‘dog in the Round of 64 this year — the No. 6 seed Bulldogs knocked off 11th-seeded Texas 56-48 — but the program has plenty of experience playing spoiler. Of the 10 games Butler won under Stevens in its consecutive trips to the national championship game, five came against higher-seeded opponents.
Thumbnail photo via John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports Images
