A Smile That Says It All

"First of all, Rashad Anderson, I was not going to let him catch the ball," Butler said. "I saw what happened the other night. I was face-guarding him; he was not going to get a shot by back-dooring me."

Hours after the final buzzer had sounded, Butler said he thought Cinderella references are misplaced when it came to his team. "I just think we never looked at it like that, that we just believed we had the ability to do this.

"The media labeled us [Cinderella], but we know we're a good team. We have good players who were passed over by bigger schools. I heard I was 'too short for his position.' "

Gary Williams contacted him, but Butler felt it was too late in the game.

"Maryland was my dream school growing up," he said. "Gary Williams talked to my high school coach."

But he ultimately decided, like many of Mason's overlooked kids, "Let me go where I'm wanted and not just be another player on a roster."

So many memorable moments from yesterday. A rough, emotional timeline of Mason's miracle began early, when Liz Larranaga embraced and kissed her husband and said, "You deserve this."

"No, Liz, a lot of coaches deserve this," said Jim, who, in a profession of ruthless climbers, has spent the past 20 years at Bowling Green and George Mason.

"Well let their wives worry about them," she said.

There was Gabe Norwood, whose father Brian, Penn State's secondary coach and brother Justin, the Nittany Lions' leading receiver in the Orange Bowl, came to see him play after Joe Paterno gave the Norwoods the second day of spring practice in Happy Valley off.

There was Carolyn Marsh, the basketball office secretary and an employee of the school since 1976, beside herself like only a behind-the-scenes, seen-and-heard-everything woman could be.

And the most touching of all, the father and son meeting underneath the basket. After the net-cutting ceremony, Lamar Butler Sr. found his son amid the pandemonium.