New Catholic league should take notice after Butler's upset

• Butler with the upset. Where have we heard that one before? This time, it was dumping the Hoosiers in overtime
• What's not to love about these guys? The Atlantic 10 ought to be glad to have them. But for how long?
• The Bulldogs survived top-ranked Indiana with three key players fouled out

INDIANAPOLIS – New Big East, you remember Butler. Send an application form. Fast.

Word is, the seven Big East evacuees are starting up a new basketball league and looking for suitable fresh recruits. Maybe they were watching what the Bulldogs did to top-ranked Indiana on Saturday.

Butler with the upset. Where have we heard that one before?

This time, it was dumping the Hoosiers in overtime. The Bulldogs didn't even do that – beat a No. 1 team – back in the dreamy Final Four days of 2010 and 2011.

But Saturday had Butler's fingerprints all over it. As gritty as it was inexplicable. The Bulldogs survived after three key players fouled out, and the winning basket in the lane came from a 5-11 sophomore walk-on who entered the day with a career scoring average of 0.8.

"You grow up in your backyard with your hoop, dreaming of playing against the No. 1 team, last-second shot, shooting it,'' Alex Barlow said later. "But not in my wildest dream did I think it would be a reality."

What's not to love about these guys? The Atlantic 10 ought to be glad to have them. But for how long?

OK, this wasn't March. "It's a big game for us. That's the No. 1 team in the country,'' guard Rotnei Clarke noted. "But this is a game in December.''

Still. This was Indiana, king of the state. Butler was playing 5 miles from campus, but might as well have been trying to run an offense on Indiana coach Tom Crean's driveway, so Hoosier-heavy was the Bankers Life Fieldhouse audience.

Pay attention, New Big East. Here is what you get with the Bulldogs. One part fairy tale. One part brass knuckles.

They never run out of ways to leave our jaws on the floor. Barlow's heroics are only the latest. No one ever heard of him before Saturday, but he's all Butler.

"Go into Hinkle (Fieldhouse) sometimes at 10 p.m., and you'll see our shooting machine and Alex in there working on floaters and jump shots,'' coach Brad Stevens said. "A bunch of other guys are there, too, but this kid lives in the gym.''

Added Clarke, "These moments are what you work for. The hours you put in the game, they translate over to these games.''

Then there is the Bulldogs' muscle. What was often missed about the Final Four teams and what ought not to be missed now is Butler's willingness to go physical.

Indiana came into Saturday's game fourth in the nation in rebound differential (plus 13.8) and field goal percentage (51.5). The Hoosiers were outrebounded and couldn't crack 43 in field goal percentage.

Shots were clanking. Bodies were flying. Getting to the basket was sometimes like trying to cut through barbed wire. What could be more Big East? And there were moments Andrew Smith absolutely owned the paint against All-American Cody Zeller.

Andrew Smith? That name might not ring a bell, but he is the only player in the country to play in two national championship games, a holdover from 2010 and '11.

"Not many guys in college basketball have done what Andrew Smith has done,'' Stevens said. "Nobody mentioned him in the first 12 minutes of interviews all week, but here's a guy who played in two national championship games. He earned that today.''

Maybe Saturday was never supposed to be an audition, but it should be an easy reminder of what Butler has become.

Yes, one theory holds that the New Big East is interested only in fellow Catholic schools. Xavier and Dayton to start. But if religion is a criteria, this is the holy land of the game. Creating a premier basketball league and not looking at Indiana would be like creating a franchise of pineapple plantations and not looking at Hawaii.

And yes, the Bulldogs have been in the Atlantic 10 for what, three hours? But conference affiliation these days is like Hollywood weddings. Everything is written in pencil.

So Butler should be on the short list.

"I understand all the speculation. I understand all the talk,'' Stevens said in the hallway afterward. "But I'm not privy to it, and I haven't even thought about it or talked about it.''

But isn't it a feat just to be wanted?

"I think feats are what you achieve on the floor.''

Look what his team achieved on the floor Saturday. Surely, the New Big East noticed.