2014-15 Update: What is Butler's Ceiling?

It's been about five months since my last post, but I'm back to share my thoughts on what I've seen from the Butler basketball team this season.  With the return of Roosevelt Jones but the loss of Khyle Marshall, things were not looking overly bright for the Bulldogs this season.  But the emergence of Chris Holtmann, who has brought energy and toughness into a program that was really searching for an identity last season under Brandon Miller, have earned the Bulldogs a top 25 ranking earlier this season.

Butler is currently 12-5 and 2-2 in the much improved Big East.  The main reason is the offensive rebounding advantage they have over many teams with bigger and stronger players, such as Georgetown's Josh Smith and UNC's Kennedy Meeks.  Kam Woods is once again dominating the backboard, and Tyler Wideman is a frequent rebounder in limited minutes.  In my opinion, every single player has met expectations and some have even exceeded them such as Kelan Martin, who brings better offense off the bench this year than Elijah Brown did last year.  Roosevelt Jones could be shooting a higher percentage from the field, but his 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game are helping immensely, as Alex Barlow doesn't have to create as many plays as he did last season.

Kellen Dunham is taking fewer shots than last year, and as a result he is shooting almost 47 percent from beyond the arc.  His shot selection has improved drastically from last year where he felt he had to carry the Bulldogs on offense.  The most recent victory over Xavier shows the growth of this team, as Dunham was a non-factor on offense and the team still scored 88 points.

While I think this team has a good shot at making the NCAA Tournament for the 2nd time in the past 4 years (weird to say that about Butler), I don't think they have the myriad of offensive weapons to get more than a victory or two.  They don't have anyone athletic and versatile as Gordon Hayward, or an interior scorer like Matt Howard.  Andrew Chrabascz might get there by the time he's a senior, but he doesn't have near the post game that Howard had.  Dunham might be a better shooter than Shelvin Mack but he doesn't have the ability to get to the basket.  So when teams are keying in on him in March, he might have to defer to his teammates a little more than Mack did in Butler's 2011 NCAA Championship game run.

I'll try to update this blog a couple more times during the rest of the season, and always, Go Bulldogs!!!

Rough times for Basketball in the State of Indiana

While everyone is talking about Paul George's leg injury (as they should), the news that former Butler center Andrew Smith (one of my all-time favorite Bulldogs) is now in the intensive care unit battling his cancer hit me more.

Paul George has made millions dollars playing basketball and if he isn't able to continue his career at the same level, it would be a shame.  But he'd be alright.

Andrew Smith is in the literal fight for his life battling Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and it would be a tragedy to see such a great young man gone in his mid 20s.  He meant so much for Butler and did a great job in the post Hayward-Howard-Mack era to keep Butler basketball relevant.  It wasn't too surprising to see how much they struggled in the Big East without his true presence as a physical center this past season.

So I'm wishing both Paul and Andrew the best, but Andrew will be in my thoughts the most.

Is this it for Butler? Roosevelt Jones needs to prove otherwise.

After listening to Butler beat writer Zak Keefer depressingly talk about the 2014-15 Butler Bulldogs on Bluejay Banter (Creighton's radio show) last night, it got me thinking if Butler will ever be the powerhouse it was 3-4 years ago during Brandon Miller's tenure.  While Kameron Woods is not strong enough to guard Big East centers, and Andrew Chrabascz is not a legitimate power forward, it looks to be almost certain that they will start at the 5 and 4 respectively.  Chrabascz is no Khyle Marshall but he could be eventually.  But Roosevelt Jones' return is probably getting overlooked by many who have already written the Bulldogs off.  He does so many of the little things, including being the dribble penetrator that Elijah Brown was not.  He can create for Kellen Dunham, who had to work far too hard to get open and didn't have enough playmakers to find him when he was.  Jones will also take some of the ball-handling responsibilities away from Alex Barlow, who also was overwhelmed by defenses by the end of the season.

In a roster of so many players who were not recruited to play Big East basketball, Jones is the one player, who at 6'4 and 227 pounds, can match up with any 2 or 3 in the league and be a physical specimen on both ends of the floor.  He should be an upgrade on the rebounding front compared to Khyle Marshall and Erik Fromm, neither of whom were decent rebounders.  He made all the clutch plays down the stretch of the Gonzaga game in January 2013, and he could've been the difference in the insane amount of close losses Butler incurred this past season.  In the past he deferred to players like Andrew Smith and Rotnei Clarke.  But his time is now.  And if he cannot help revitalize Butler to a middle of the road Big East team, the questions surrounding Brandon Miller's squad will continue to mount.

Butler Basketball: No more remnants of the Final Four

I know I have not posted on the blog for a few months, but I have been writing numerous articles every week for a FanSided website called West Coast Convo.  I have still been watching a fair amount of Butler Bulldogs games, and I even went to the Butler vs. St. John's game at MSG in person.  This has not been an easy season for the Bulldogs, but I have confident that they will be better next season with a healthy Roosevelt Jones.  It wasn't easy to see the suspensions to Elijah Brown, Rene Castro, and even Kam Woods.  It wasn't any easier to have Rene Castro leave the program.  All of the turmoil definitely hurt the public's perception of Brandon Miller, but as he was on Illinois' staff in 2012-13, he knows what adversity is and he knows how to overcome it.

Anyways, the purpose of this article is mainly to talk about Khyle Marshall, whose contribution to Butler cannot be defined with some statistics.  Sure, he led the 2011 NCAA Tournament in offensive rebounds, but he's become a more complete player since then.  At the time, he was Matt Howard's understudy, and big things were expected of a highly recruited Marshall.  While he may not have lived up to Howard's career, he was a steady leader for Butler over the last few years.  He remained positive during a difficult 2011-12 season, and during the fantastic 2012-13 season, where he had to give up a fair amount of his playing at power forward to the emerging Kameron Woods.  And if you ask, me Khyle Marshall, not Kellen Dunham, was Butler's most valuable player this season.  While Dunham slumped during the second half of the season as defenses keyed on him the way they hadn't the year before when he was Rotnei Clarke's sidekick, Marshall remained productive throughout.  He shot over 50% in each of the last 6 games of the season.

Marshall had to be a senior leader as the only player left who played meaningful minutes on a Final Four team (I believe Erik Fromm played a grand total of 4 seconds in the 2011 NCAA Tournament).  I know he had an impact on Andrew Chrabascz the similar to the one Matt Howard had on him, which is why I am confident that Chrabascz will have a great sophomore season.  Looking forward, I have every reason to believe that a starting lineup of Barlow/Dunham/Jones/Chrabascz/Woods will be more competitive in the Big East next season.

I do not know how often I will be able to update this blog at this point, but I wanted to get this one post done to talk about my opinion on the state of the program and the loss of an excellent player.

The future of this blog

I know that posts have been coming less frequently in the past few weeks, and I have not even written one for certain games.  There is a reason for that.  I was recently given an opportunity to cover West Coast Conference basketball as a staff writer on Fansided's West Coast Convo site.  I will be writing multiple articles a week there, which will take up a good portion of my free time.

I want to make it clear that I am NOT abandoning this blog.  Butler has always been one of my favorite college basketball teams and I do want to write about them.  But don't expect more than a couple of posts per month.  For example, for the month of December I will probably only have articles about the Purdue and Villanova games.

Thanks for reading my articles on this blog for the past 18 months, and don't worry, there is still more to come from this site.

Marshall's missed free throws allow Oklahoma State to squeak past Butler

Khyle Marshall missed two free throws with Butler down by one point and 8 seconds left.  My worst nightmare became a reality.  All season long I have been worried about anyone other than Dunham at the free throw line.  And the 55% free throw shooter Marshall (that percentage is now lower), is one guy who has good form but missed the first shot short and the second one long.  Nonetheless, Butler played admirably against the #5 team in the country.  I guess they ran out of miracles after last season.  Kellen Dunham had a makeable layup at the end that wouldn't fall.  The Bulldogs had their chances but Marcus Smart certainly left the door open with three consecutive missed free throws, so it was not just the Bulldogs missing free throws.  This has been an exciting Old Spice Classic and I am looking forward to the game tomorrow against an opponent yet to be decided.

Butler Survives Poor Free Throw Shooting to Defeat Vanderbilt in Overtime

I was not planning on doing a game recap for this game, but I caught the last 10 minutes of regulation and the overtime period on Fox Sports 1, so I will discuss my impressions of the portion of the game I saw.

1. There is no one to trust at the free throw line.  I thought I trusted Kellen Dunham (I tweeted that during the end of the second half), but he missed the front end of a one-and-one.  Marshall, Woods, and Aldridge also missed many free throws down the stretch.  This was the main reason Butler blew their 14 point second half lead.

2.  Elijah Brown is ready for the big stage.  With a lovely double-clutch jumper in the paint along with a couple of high pressure free throws, he is inching closer to the starting lineup and could potentially take Erik Fromm's spot if Butler decides to go small.

3. Khyle Marshall knows his strengths and weaknesses.  A number of times he was forced to dribble right and then spun back to the left with an impressive array of floaters, jump hooks, and finger rolls.  He was absolutely the MVP of this game and it is nice to see him stepping up as a senior and filling the scoring void of Clarke/Smith/Jones.

4. The rotation is essentially 9.  Rene Castro plays spare minutes as the 3rd string point guard and Nolan Berry may see a minute or two here or there, but it looks as though Morgan, Chrabascz, Brown, and Aldridge are the only bench players who will see major minutes.

*Anyone familiar with US History will appreciate ESPN's clever title in their game recap: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400504469

*Butler next plays at Ball State on Saturday, and I may or may not be able to watch and put a game recap.  But their will definitely be another article on Wednesday, November 27.  So stay tuned Bulldog fans!  Its an exciting time of year with the Old Spice Classic coming up.