It’s been a while since Boston Celtics veteran forward Gordon Hayward was in the NCAA tournament.
But, he also got further in it than anyone on his team save Kemba Walker, and he did it with his current coach — Brad Stevens — when they were both at Butler.
Without live NBA or NCAA basketball to keep us busy, the Celtics Wire has been putting out articles detailing the games played by players on the 2019-20 Celtics roster in their Big Dance days, and today only Hayward has a game to look back on.
It was in 2010, exactly a decade ago today, that his Bulldogs beat the Syracuse Orangemen in a Sweet Sixteen matchup that would earn the Indiana native’s squad a date with Kansas State in the Elite Eight two days later.
But it took almost everything they had to get by Jim Boeheim’s squad, Butler squeaking out a close 63-59 win, a late 11-point run sealing the victory.
“We said this word over and over in Indianapolis, and that word is ‘resolve.’ These guys have resolve,” Stevens said via the Associated Press. “It’s hard to measure, but they’ve got it.”
Hayward scored 17 points and 5 rebounds in the win that gave the Bulldogs their first regional final appearance in school history after upsetting top-seeded Syracuse.
