With the Preakness betting set to come to a close later this week, it is once again time to look at all the offseason news surrounding the NCAA. For this week, we have received an influx of emails regarding the Butler Bulldogs, who for a second sports betting year in a row, will be losing their star player to the NBA draft. Last year, Gordon Haywood was drafted by the Utah Jazz, but where will Shelvin Mack go? Today we try to figure out how Butler will make it to the National title game for a third year in a row.

If you had told us two years ago, heck even last year that the NCAA March Madness tournament would conclude with the Butler Bulldogs being the maid of honor to the National Champions, we probably would have called you crazy. However, here we are two years later eating our words for not believing that Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens could guide the Bulldogs to two straight National title games and lose both.

The first year they did it, in 2010 against the Duke Blue Devils, fans and experts including ourselves, thought that given how close the Bulldogs got to winning the title, there was a possibility they could be there again soon. Yet, this season, when they were destroyed by the Connecticut Huskies in the Championship game, we figured that the team’s boat had sailed after two incredible seasons. As we mentioned earlier, making matters worse, the Bulldogs lost their top tier player for a second year in a row, as guard Shelvin Mack declared for the NBA draft.

Unlike the 2010 National title losing Butler Bulldogs, the 2011 version, has a lot of work cut out for them headed into 2012. Aside from Mack, Butler will be losing six players to either the NBA draft or graduation. Aside from Mack, Matt Howard and Zach Hahn two other impact players are graduating. If there is an Achilles heel to Butler’s success, it is their inability to recruit top tier talent. As this is the case, it appears that the Butler Bulldog’s window for a National title has all but closed.