Horizon League Notebook – Early Showdown between Butler and Cleveland State

No, they’re not the best team in the country as their RPI of 1 earlier this week suggested. (RPI rankings really are silly, especially early in the year.) And no, they’re not the 27th-best team in America as their Sagarin ranking suggests. Yes, like teams in higher conferences they’ve played 4 of their 5 games at home, only venturing away from the friendly confines of Hinkle to visit Drake to open the season. And no, they haven’t faced the Dukes, North Carolinas and Connecticuts of the world, with Northwestern near the bottom of the Big Ten having been their most serious opponent – and at home. But to the surprise of some, with three freshmen in Brad Stevens’ starting lineup, the Butler Bulldogs have completed the first portion of their non-conference schedule undefeated, and will bring a 5-0 record into Wolstein Center Thursday night to face preseason Horizon favorite Cleveland State.

As this writer projected after attending an exhibition game four weeks ago, this is a different kind of Butler team, quite frankly a more interesting and more exciting Butler team. It is one that will be able to play the more physical and athletic style often required to beat teams from major conferences. At least for the moment – until Gordon Hayward really gets going – they’re not the three-point shooting team we’ve come to expect Butler to be: the team’s 32 percent three-point shooting puts Butler more than two percentage points out of the nation’s top hundred. What they’re doing it with is solid defense, defense already better than that which led the Horizon in fewest points allowed the last three seasons.

As has been suggested a time or two in this space, points allowed can be a deceptive stat, as teams like Princeton, Dartmouth, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Butler (like the Super Bowl winning Giants with O.J. Anderson) can use all of the shot clock each time down the floor, control the ball for 25 of 40 minutes, and limit opposition possessions and attempts to a precious few. And respectfully, it is that style more than great individual man-to-man pressure that has caused Butler to lead the league in scoring defense in recent years. No more.

In the five games Butler has played, they’ve yielded an average of just 50 points, and never given up 60. Their opponents are shooting a combined 37 percent from the field (and 32 percent from the arc), and while the NCAA won’t publish statistics on defensive field goal percentage until tomorrow, I suspect that 37 percent number will be in America’s top ten, maybe top five. Focusing as I often do on the point guard position, while Alabama native Ronald Nored has struggled offensively (particularly from the line, where he’s started his career 4-14), it was the freshman’s stout defense more than anything else that turned defeat into victory against Northwestern on Wednesday night.

In the Northwestern game, Nored was assigned the task of defending the opposition’s best player, backcourt star Craig Moore, fresh off of a 31-point performance and Big Ten Co-Player of the Week honors. Putting in yeoman’s work at the defensive end, Nored held Moore to just 11 points, on 4-11 shooting, 3-8 from the arc. And if the other team’s radio broadcasters were on the money (isn’t it wonderful to listen to faraway college basketball on one’s car radio after dark this time of year), it was Nored’s defensive work more than anything else that allowed Butler to come back from a deficit that reached 12-points in the first half and was 9 at intermission, to defeat the Wildcats 57-53.

Offensively and on the boards, it is no surprise that star sophomore Matt Howard is leading the way, holding the fort until the freshmen are truly ready. Howard is tied for fifth in the league scoring 13.3 per game, is second in shooting percentage at 57.5 percent, and tied for seventh with 6.3 rebounds. More importantly (though not surprisingly), 6-8 freshman guard Gordon Hayward is on Howard’s heels in every category and also shoots threes: through the first five games of his career Hayward is tied for tenth in the conference in scoring at 12 points per game, fourth in field goal percentage at 51.6 percent, fourth in steals at 2 per game (this is a surprise), fifth in treys made with 2 per game, and sixth in three-point percentage at 44.4 percent; he’s also grabbing 5 rebound per game. In the backcourt, with 18 points on 8-11 shooting in yesterday’s win over Evansville (including 2-2 from the arc), Lexington’s Shelvin Mack has raised his scoring average to 12 per game, and will be listed among the conference’s top twenty scorers when conference stats are recalibrated tomorrow. And in addition to Ronald Nored’s stellar individual defense, he’s dished out 2.8 assists per game, tied for ninth in the Horizon.

So while this edition of the Bulldogs doesn’t quite shoot like recent groups did (Hayward excluded, and maybe Mack), they may already be among the best defensive teams that has patrolled Hinkle, and are destined to become over the next two years the best Butler team ever. That said, they should be good enough to compete at Cleveland State Thursday night (in CSU’s second conference game in three days, but just Butler’s first), though perhaps not yet ready for their freshman to beat the Vikings’ seniors in their gym. Then the Bulldogs will proceed down the road and be more ready for a conference road win at Youngstown State on Saturday night. All being held together by Matt Howard, as those three freshman get better and better and better.

Horizon News and Notes

• Saturday was a big day for conference teams as in addition to Butler’s 75-59 win over Evansville, Loyola beat Holy Cross 58-53, Detroit beat St. Louis 62-57, Wisconsin Green-Bay beat Massachusetts 84-67 and Illinois-Chicago beat Central Michigan 77-67. Not surprisingly, Wisconsin-Milwaukee lost in Madison to the Badgers, 67-46; Youngstown State was edged at home by St. Francis of Pennsylvania, 66-65. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that after yesterday’s 84-65 loss to Sam Houston State, Wright State will begin conference play 0-4 on the season.
• With many conferences now adding one or two pre-Christmas conference games, this week provides Horizon fans with a great taste of what January and February will be like. The conference schedule begins Tuesday night with just a singleton, Valparaiso at Cleveland State. Then four conference games tip off on Thursday: Valpo at Youngstown State, Butler at CSU, Detroit at Milwaukee and Wright State at Green Bay. Four more conference tilts come on Saturday: Butler at YSU, Wright State at Milwaukee, Detroit at Green Bay and Loyola at Illinois-Chicago. Enjoy your early taste!
• Note that Thursday’s game between Butler and Cleveland State in Cleveland will start at 8 pm, rather than CSU’s usual 7 pm, and be telecast nationally on ESPNU.