While it may appear that the Butler Bulldogs have a brutal non-conference schedule, but when digging deeper, they play a lot of teams who lost a lot from their 2011-12 squads.
Xavier: This team loses four starters including Tu Holloway, Kenny Frease, and Vanderbilt transfer Andre Walker. Mark Lyons transferred to Arizona, leaving upcoming Sophomore Dezmine Wells as the only returning starter leading a very inexperienced team. Butler should take advantage of Xavier's youth across the board to take the early non-conference game against Xavier.
Northwestern: For 2012-13, Northwestern's frontcourt will come in to this season with a combined zero minutes played as a Wildcat. This includes Louisville transfer Jared Swopshire, TCU transfer Nikola Cerina, redshirt Freshman Mike Turner, and true Freshman Alex Olah, among a couple other Freshmen. This froncourt will not only have to replace sharpshooter John Shurna's 20.0 ppg average, but also serviceable big men Luka Mirkovic and Davide Curletti. They may have a great backcourt led by Drew Crawford, but so does Butler. Northwestern's frontcourt will have to step for the Wildcats to have a sniff at the NCAA tournament and a chance to beat Butler.
Vanderbilt: This team will be in a complete rebuilding mode. They lost their top six scorers from 2011-12 season, including Junior sharp-shooter John Jenkins who left for the NBA Draft. They also lost starters Jeffrey Taylor, Festus Ezeli, Brad Tinsley, and Lance Goulbourne to graduation, as well as 6th man Steve Tchiengang. With only 3 of their 9 rotation players returning, none who were top-6 scorers on the team, look for Butler to be considered the favorite when making the trip to Memorial Gym in Nashville.
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