Horizon Notebook: Butler Too Good for Green Bay in Battle for First Place

INDIANAPOLIS – The Wisconsin-Green Bay team may not have read this space recently (or if they did, they chose not to believe), as we had long decided that the Horizon regular season belongs to Butler. In fact, the only question that remains in the mind of this writer is whether Butler will lose a single game, either in the Horizon regular season or in a conference tournament in which it will need to win but twice, both games at home. But I will forgive Tod Kowalczyk, his staff and his players if they thought otherwise, coming into Hinkle for their first meeting with Butler with but a single conference loss. And even if only technically speaking, the Phoenix were correct, as a win on Butler’s home court would have left both teams with one loss, with Green Bay having won head-to-head. But it was not to be.

Having already anointed Butler regular season champs, we’ve decided three corollary things in this space. First, that the real battleground in the Horizon is for the second seed in the tournament, which also provides that awful double-bye and a home semi-final game. Second, that with both Wisconsin teams, Wright State and Cleveland State the obvious contenders for second, each is now rooting strongly for Butler when it plays any of the other contenders; thus, deep down Milwaukee, WSU and CSU were all rooting for the Bulldogs to beat Green Bay Thursday night. Third, that even though Green Bay and Milwaukee came into Thursday night’s games with just one loss, Wright State with three, and CSU with four (Milwaukee now has two losses, after falling to Valpo Thursday night), the Wisconsin schools having yet to face Butler even once, the race for second is tighter than the difference between one loss and four might otherwise indicate. That is, at 4-4 going into their game Saturday night at Youngstown State, preseason favorite Cleveland State is still very much alive for that cherished second spot. Of course, coming off a week in which they were oh-for-Wisconsin, the Vikings certainly have to win tomorrow night at YSU to stay in the race for second.

With that as a backdrop, Thursday night’s game went very much like lots of Butler’s games this season. Saddled with two early fouls, center Matt Howard played only 10 first-half minutes. And with forward Willie Veasley also in foul trouble (he played just 5 minutes and had three fouls before halftime), Butler played from behind the entire half (trailing by as many as 6), but its players kept the game at their signature controlled pace. And as was the case in earlier wins over Northwestern, Cleveland State, UAB, Detroit and Illinois-Chicago, Butler trailed at the half, though by just three points, at 25-22. In that slow and low-scoring half, Green Bay’s 6-0 junior guard Troy Cotton dominated, by scoring 10 of Green Bay’s 25 points (on 3-4 shooting, 2-2 from the arc), grabbing a team-high four boards, and most of all by holding one of Butler’s sharpshooting frosh Shelvin Mack scoreless, his pressure allowing Mack to shoot just three times, all from the arc, hitting none.

But just as in those five earlier games (and in their single loss to Ohio State), Butler came out of the locker room strong, and took over the game. (At OSU, the Bulldogs trailed by 6 at the intermission, cut the lead in half in the second stanza, and had a Gordon Hayward trey in the air at the final buzzer that would have tied the game). Strong defense, particularly by the guards, Howard’s rebounding, and Veasley’s all-around aggressive play took the game back. And even with just Howard and Hayward scoring at their usual rate, by the ten minute mark of the second what was a three-point deficit had become a six-point lead (41-35). Then, when a pretty Hayward feed got a previously scoreless Mack a shot under the goal at the eleven minute mark, Mack belatedly joined the party, and Butler’s three scorers all contributing was too much for Green Bay to overcome. The game wasn’t as close as the 68-59 final score.

Howard had 15 (on 4-7) and eight boards. Hayward had 14 (on 5-9, 2-5 from the arc) and 6 boards. Mack had 11 (on 4-7, and also 2-5 from the arc), five boards, and a monstrous eight assists. In fact, as we approach the halfway point of the conference season, it was incredibly obvious that Butler’s two freshmen shooters, Hayward and Mack, also love playing together, setting up one another to score, and feeding off of one another’s energy. For the losers, diminutive lefty guard Rahmon Fletcher did all he could to keep his team close in the second half, scoring 17 of his 22 after intermission, on 7-12 shooting. But he was overmatched by Butler all half long, in particular by Butler’s two frosh playing together as beautifully as they did.

Green Bay coach Kowalczyk talked about Butler’s strong defense after the game, focusing on a series of “7 possessions during which we turned the ball over 4 times.” He followed up that “because Butler plays so slow, each possession is that much more valuable.”

Mimicking former Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green’s famous comments about the Chicago Bears, Butler coach Brad Stevens began his press conference complimenting Green Bay’s defense, telling us that “they [Green Bay] were exactly what we thought they’d be.” In response to questions he was candid that in a number of games this year his now 17-1 team has shot poorly in the first half, causing a first-half or halftime deficit.

When I asked him about his team’s controlled pace, and if or when he might allow his talented freshmen to play a bit faster, he responded that he’s already trying to cause that to happen, that this edition of the Bulldogs has succeeded in getting the ball up the floor more quickly than last year’s group in a number of games, and attributed the slowness of tonight’s first half to strong Green Bay defense. He then proceeded to compliment Gordon Hayward’s unselfish team-oriented attitude, at the same time making clear that he wants Hayward to shoot from the perimeter every single time he’s open, and that when Hayward is crowded by a defender Stevens wants him to drive hard to the goal. Not surprisingly, Stevens wouldn’t focus for very long on his gaudy 17-1 record to start the season (the best start in team history), telling us that “if we start looking at that instead of our next opponent, that’s the best way to make sure that we’ll no longer have a something-and-one record.”

While Green Bay moves on to more beatable Valparaiso for a game Saturday night, Butler will remain at home and entertain that other Wisconsin team, which stumbled badly at Valpo Thursday night, falling 63-51, that game at 2 p.m. Saturday. You can bet that the Panthers, who Stevens called “scary-good offensively,” will bring their A-game to Indianapolis, hoping to find a way to beat Butler and salvage a split on their swing through Indiana. You can also bet that Green Bay – along with WSU and CSU – will be rooting for Butler to beat Milwaukee Saturday, and stay undefeated.

Horizon News and Notes

• Don’t forget the Friday 9 p.m. eastern Horizon ESPNU game, Friday night featuring Cleveland State at Youngstown State. And CSU had better not take those pesky Penguins lightly, as they are mighty dangerous on their home court.
• Thursday night’s game being the first chance this writer has had to see Wisconsin-Green Bay in person, I got a chance to watch last year’s Horizon Defensive Player of the Year, Phoenix 3-man Terry Evans, who spent most of the night shadowing Butler’s Gordon Hayward. In this writer’s opinion, Evans helped off of Hayward more than he should have, dug for dribbles and lunged for passes, and as a result Hayward scored well, and had open looks that could have resulted in his scoring way more than his 14. While one match-up in one game – a difficult one at that – isn’t enough to reach a firm judgment, from what I saw tonight, much as is the case for Cleveland State’s Cedric Jackson (the only player in the league with more steals), for Evans steals aren’t a positive statistic. I’d be more impressed if Evans played tough hard-nosed position defense, tightened up his spacing, and forced his man to turn his side or back to the goal, and to take more difficult shots. This night, Evans wasn’t even the best defensive player on his team; Troy Cotton was, for his terrific work on Shelvin Mack, holding Mack scoreless for the first 31 minutes.