Butler Bulldogs cannot be denied

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Ronald Nored launched five shots and missed them all, but without Nored, Butler might not be doing the unthinkable: playing in back-to-back national championship games.

[+] EnlargeShelvin Mack
Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesRonald Nored's white lie inspired Shelvin Mack's 24-point effort in Butler's win over VCU.

The playmaker and lockdown defender for the Bulldogs scored his biggest assist hours before the game even tipped off, concocting a devious plan that ended up being every bit as critical as Brad Stevens' game plan.

As Butler gathered for its pregame meal, Nored leaned over to Shelvin Mack, the Bulldogs' best pure scorer, and told him that he had read that some of the Virginia Commonwealth players were dogging Mack, saying he wasn't anywhere near as good as some of the players they had already faced in this NCAA tournament.

"Yeah, it was a total lie," Nored said. "Nobody said that, but I'd seen that on a '30 for 30' about Reggie Miller. Marc Jackson told him some stuff, and Reggie went off. I figured if it worked for Reggie, maybe it would work for Shelvin. I mean, it couldn't hurt, right?"

Mack swears now that he knew it wasn't true, or at least that he figured it out when he went back to his room, Googled the information and came up empty.

But the notion apparently stuck in his head anyway.

Mack scored 24 points, including 10 in a row during a critical swing that gave Butler all the wiggle room it would need to win the April BracketBusters game and become the first team since Florida in 2006-07 to appear in back-to-back national championship games.