fueled in large part by gordon hayward's and shelvin mack's roles in leading team usa to the gold medal in the fiba under-19 world championship during the off-season, butler began the season ranked 10th in the coaches' poll and 11th in the ap poll. a few commentators picked the bulldogs as a possible "sleeper team" to make the final four. stevens was not so sure, privately telling his father, "we have a really good team, and i’m not sure how far we can go this year, but "next year", we ought to go really far."