For West Virginia, the Butler Keeps Doing It

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – West Virginia’s most important player isn’t someone that anyone would have imagined a few years ago.  But Da’Sean Butler is closing the book on a fine career that has come a long way from his days growing up in Newark, New Jersey.

Butler wasn’t the pick of many to play in the Big East.  He got plenty of notice from playing at Bloomfield Tech a little north of his hometown, at that time a burgeoning powerhouse that was dormant for many years before Courtney Nelson, DaShawn Dwight and Jason Wilson brought them into prominence that included trips to some major in-season tournaments.  Still, Butler was at best an Atlantic 10-level prospect, a nice player with some good skills but not all that athletic and not with one thing in particular that he hangs his hat on.  He was, in many respects, a typical John Beilein recruit: he’s talented, but doesn’t look like a Big East player at first glance.

Nearly four years and 30 pounds of muscle later, he’s more than just a Big East player.  He’s arguably the best player in the conference.  What’s not up for debate is that he’s underrated.

“I think Da’Sean is probably as underappreciated as anybody in America for just the things he can do,” said head coach Bob Huggins.  “I don’t know if there’s a more complete player anywhere in the country.”

All Butler has done is be a model of consistency and improvement.  He’s scored in double figures 98 times in 133 career games, and has started every game since the start of his sophomore year after being a solid reserve as a freshman.  When Huggins took over as head coach, Butler thrived, and has looked like the perfect bridge between coaches.  He should surpass 2,000 career points before his career is over and will leave in third place on the school’s all-time scoring list.

And this is a player who barely topped 1,000 career points in high school.  What hasn’t changed is the winning: he helped Bloomfield Tech win 97 games in four years, and in his nearly four years at West Virginia the Mountaineers have won 96 games.

Huggins was quick to note how versatile Butler is, and that was probably a big reason Beilein recruited him.  The Mountaineers have played him at every position except center, and that gives them a lot of options since they can go big in the backcourt with him at one of those positions.  He’s been adept at filling the stat sheet, and in Wednesday night’s win over Providence, he had another day at the office: 16 points, five rebounds, three assists with just one turnover.

Following a season where his teammates selected him as their MVP, Butler played for USA Basketball at the World University Games last summer, averaging 8.6 points per contest.  Just being selected was proof of how far he had come, but he’s followed that up with an excellent senior year that has had some big moments.  It started with being named the 76 Classic MVP as the Mountaineers won the title, as he scored 26 points in the title game and averaged 18.7 points per game while shooting nearly 56 percent from the field in the three games.  But that was just the beginning.

As the season has gone along, Butler has been Mr. Clutch for his team.  At Cleveland State, he scored a driving layup with 1.2 seconds left for the winning basket.  Against Marquette, a long jumper with 2.3 seconds left gave the Mountaineers a one-point win.  He also hit a game-winner against Louisville with 16 seconds left.

The Mountaineers have the personnel to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, although they haven’t been able to pull out some games against other elite teams.  Close losses at Purdue and at home to Syracuse stand out in that respect, while they also lost at home to Villanova and more recently lost a tough triple over time game at Pittsburgh.  If they are going to make a run in the NCAA Tournament, the person most likely to lead them is Butler, the versatile senior who has come a long way and is still underrated.