Moving along to Butler

[MU82]

Like many of you, I watched the Butler-Bucknell game with great interest. With our rematch against Butler coming up, here are some of the things I gleaned from the B-vs-B game, as well as our win against Davidson:

1. This was the first time I had seen Bucknell. Their center supposedly is outstanding but he struggled in this one. However, he very often caught the ball in the lane and very often was in position for high-percentage shots. He just didn't make them. I'm hoping Butler lets Gardner and Otule establish that kind of position and lets them catch the ball so deep. The Bucknell center had a bad habit of falling away or to the side every time he shot. Our guys will go toward the rim. If Butler plays similar defense, I like the odds of our centers having good offensive games and getting to the FT line often. Back in November, Gardner had 12 pts and 5 offensive boards in only 16 minutes. Buzz went small a lot in that game, but Otule's conditioning and confidence are much better now.

2. Butler isn't the best pressure-the-ball team we have faced by a landslide but we still had 14 TOs (to only 7 by Butler) in our first meeting. Junior, Vander and Lockett had 3 each. That's way too many for the team and for our guards. Butler is too good to just give them points; of course, at this point in our season, we can say that about every opponent. Gotta take care of the rock, kids.

3. That Willman guy who came out of nowhere and scored 20 for Bucknell was wide open from 15-17 all day. That will be there for Jamil or Taylor or even Gardner.

4. Clarke was awful most of yesterday's game. He also wasn't very good most of the game when we played them in November. But he came through late both times. On both occasions, he made some crazy shots, none crazier than his winning heave with Derrick Wilson draped all over him. If we play similarly aggressive D on him this time, always making sure somebody is right on him, I again like our chances.

5. I'm a huge Buzz fan but he's not perfect, either, and he didn't have his best game against Davidson. I'm still trying to figure out the lineup he put in with 4 minutes left in the first half after we had clawed back to take a 3-point lead: Thomas, DWilson, Otule, Lockett, Anderson. Who was going to score? Answer: Nobody. We lost all momentum, basically gave the last 4 minutes away and trailed by 2 at halftime. Then he goes back to Jake in crunch time? I've got nothing against Jake, seems to be a nice kid, but here's a kid who wasn't good enough to play for two months and now he's good enough to be in an NCAA game at crunch time? Wow. That floored me. And though I like Juan more than many Scoopers do, he shouldn't be playing 16 minutes. I know he's in for D, but he was running around like a headless chicken, fouling people when he shouldn't have been and contributing zero on offense. I did like Buzz's final play, naturally, so he is absolved of everything else in my book!!!

6. When they weren't turning the ball over, Vander and Junior had their way with Butler's slower players much of the first meeting. We need more.

7. Let's get a nice double-digit lead and ride it home. My heart can't take this crap!!!!