Statistician Nate Silver pegged Butler with a 0.9 percent chance of reaching the championship before this year’s tournament began. Meanwhile, Ken Pomeroy’s numbers had them with a 1.5 percent chance a year ago.

Multiply 0.9 percent by 1.5 percent and you get 0.0135 percent, which equates to odds of 7,406-to-1 against.

Silver notes that Duke was “only” about a 1,600-to-1 long shot to play in five consecutive Final Fours between 1988 and 1992.