Last week's basketball championship between Duke and Butler had just less than 24 million viewers, the biggest audience for that annual game since the Connecticut-Duke game in 1999.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_en_tv/us_nielsens

No surprise here. This was the quintessential national championship game, especially for one played in the state of Indiana. It literally was David versus Goliath, the upstart program from the cornfields of the Hoosier State (bear with me here, I know Butler is from Indy) versus Tobacco Road's Duke Blue Devils, indisputably basketball's greatest giant over the last quarter century.

You couldn't have asked for a better story line, really. And it ended as well as it possibly could, with the kids from underdog Butler putting up the ultimate fight, but Duke reclaiming its dominance in basketball once again. (I don't doubt that many disagree with this notion).

"And once again, Duke and Coach K are the gold standard of college basketball." - Jim Nantz

Love that quote.