Sleeper of the conference

[butlerway]

Butler of the 3 new teams is the one I'm least sure of this year. 2 years ago they don't make the tourney out of the Horizon, then last year, they were 2-5 vs the NCAA teams in the A10 with 3 not all that close. Against the clear top 2 of SLU and VCU- 0-4 with 3 pretty bad losses-2 ugly road losses. Now, lost their coach and a key player.

That's kind of cherry picking stats there though. Out of conference Butler played 5 tournament teams (all but 1 at a neutral site) and went 4-1. They beat two #1 seeds in Indiana and Gonzaga as well as Marquette and North Carolina. Ask Marquette fans how tough Butler was last year. The teams played twice on neutral floors and both came down to the final seconds.

Butler matched up terribly against VCU and SLU. Their biggest weakness was pressure and VCU and SLU both get up and put a lot of pressure on the ball handler. Although PG will still be a weakness, the Dawgs will be better against pressure this year as their guards are more athletic and are better ball handlers than last year. Plus the rules changes will prevent that type of hands on defense. Butler's 5th loss in conference came in the final seconds on the road against a tournament team without star senior Andrew Smith.

Not that last year means much at all. Butler is a much different team this year, some for better and for worse.

[stever20]

Butler of the 3 new teams is the one I'm least sure of this year. 2 years ago they don't make the tourney out of the Horizon, then last year, they were 2-5 vs the NCAA teams in the A10 with 3 not all that close. Against the clear top 2 of SLU and VCU- 0-4 with 3 pretty bad losses-2 ugly road losses. Now, lost their coach and a key player.

That's kind of cherry picking stats there though. Out of conference Butler played 5 tournament teams (all but 1 at a neutral site) and went 4-1. They beat two #1 seeds in Indiana and Gonzaga as well as Marquette and North Carolina. Ask Marquette fans how tough Butler was last year. The teams played twice on neutral floors and both came down to the final seconds.

Butler matched up terribly against VCU and SLU. Their biggest weakness was pressure and VCU and SLU both get up and put a lot of pressure on the ball handler. Although PG will still be a weakness, the Dawgs will be better against pressure this year as their guards are more athletic and are better ball handlers than last year. Plus the rules changes will prevent that type of hands on defense. Butler's 5th loss in conference came in the final seconds on the road against a tournament team without star senior Andrew Smith.

Not that last year means much at all. Butler is a much different team this year, some for better and for worse.

The thing is- and something all 3 newbies will face this year- it's much different getting up for a single game OOC compared to getting up for big games almost every night. I mean last year, Butler had 2 times all year long where they played ranked teams back to back. 1st time they won both in Maui. 2nd time, they lost both to SLU/VCU. They never had a stretch like they have in January for instance- Georgetown/Creighton/Marquette/Providence/St John's. Or after playing Seton Hall- Marquette/Georgetown/Xavier/Creighton/St John's/Providence/Villanova. That's a stretch there of 13 games with only 1 "easier" game(and that's a road game @ Seton Hall).

[butlerway]

No, but at the same time, Butler no longer has a target on their back. This is a discussion we've had several times on the Butler board, but I believe it is much easier to play well consistently from game to game when you are playing good teams. It's really tough in these small conferences to get motivated for many of the games. But it's the biggest game of the year for your opponent, so they are always hyped and often display a much higher energy level. And those small gyms sell out and can get rocking and are very tough to play in. Butler won't have any trouble getting up for games against Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova, etc, etc.

Butler was kind of on the beneficial end of that in the Gonzaga game last year. It was the only home game against a ranked opponent, so it was the game everyone had to go to. The atmosphere in Hinkle was unbelievable that night. Without Clarke Butler shouldn't have had much of a chance against Gonzaga, but the home court advantage provided a significant boost, more so that usual.