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I never have and never will understand the grief Duke gets for fouls. Except for this year, Duke has never been described as "physical." It's very hard to describe Duke as a finesse team that commits fouls like crazy. That doesn't compute. However, I will grant that they are a smart team that pushes the limits as much as they can, which I think is what everyone wants their team to do.
These two teams to me looked very similar. Neither Butler nor Duke has the flashy athletes that Kansas or Kentucky had but they have some players who buy into the system and are more worried about doing good than looking good.
Heard Mike DeCourcy on the radio this morning and his argument was that this year's NCAA tournament may have been one of the most loosely officiated tournaments ever and that in every round you saw the teams that played the most physical prevail. During that stretch last night and during the MSU-Butler stretch last night where no one was scoring FGs, it was a junkyard brawl. Both teams clawed and hacked away, and I don't think one was worse than the other.
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