on april 3, stevens and the butler bulldogs faced off with michigan state in the national semi-finals. michigan state took an early 14–7 lead, and matt howard got in early foul trouble, sitting most the first half. stevens kept the team focused with a "next man up" attitude and the game was tied at 28 at halftime. the second half was dominated by tight defense for both sides. with 2:45 to go in the game, the score was 47–44 butler. michigan state called a time out to set up a play. stevens correctly anticipated the play call and had ronald nored, the team's best defender, switch onto korie lucious off a screen. nored stole the ball and shawn vanzant got fouled on the resulting run out, hitting 1 of 2. trailing 50–49 with under 30 seconds remaining, michigan state came up empty and was forced to foul. nored hit both foul shots, giving butler a 52–49 lead. after a michigan state time out, stevens had his team foul lucious with 2 seconds remaining to prevent a potentially game tying 3-pointer. after making the first, lucious intentionally missed the second free throw. hayward came down with the rebound to seal the victory. butler became the first team since the shot clock was adopted for the 1985–86 season to hold five straight tournament opponents under 60 points.