Is a frontline of Butler, Fulce, and Crowder big enough?

[Marquette84]

I'm in no way accusing you of an anti-Butler bias, but I do take issue with the idea that when a player doubles his minutes (or at bats, carries, etc) and also doubles his stats it equates to no improvement. When you're always fresh playing against guys who might not be and when you're an afterthought to the defense rather than someone they "game plan" for it's tough to keep your averages per minute the same. There's more to it than math.

Regarding Fulce, I tend to agree with one caveat - if his knee was still a problem last year but is 100% this year he could improve significantly.

Your point might be true for a player who played scant minutes and always against the 2nd or 3rd string on the opposition.

But in 2009, Butler was part of the primary rotation. He came to MU with an outstanding reputation as a scorer in Juco, and tape from his early games (including his very first game where he put up 10 points in 24 minutes), should have been enough to indicate to opposing coaches that they have to consider him in their game planning.

Butler was one of only 5 players on the team to play in every game (James would have made it 6)--he was typically first man off the bench, and wound up 5th in minutes & points.