Today, the bracket for this November's Maui Invitational was released, and Butler has a first round game against Marquette. If they were to win that game they could potentially play North Carolina in the next round. While Marquette lost Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom, they return everyone else, and it will be interesting to see if center Chris Otule can recover from the many injuries he has sustained at Marquette.
North Carolina will be led by James Michael McAdoo, who was very successful down the stretch of his Freshman season replacing John Henson due to injury. While Marcus Page will run the point, expect to see a lot of Dexter Strickland at that position as well. Also lookout for Reggie Bullock, who became a starter after the Strickland injury, Leslie McDonald, and P.J. Hairston on the wing.
While Butler did not get Chaminade in the first round, I still think they have a good chance to beat Marquette which has to replace over half of its scoring from 2011-12. It will be tough to beat North Carolina, so my projection for Butler in the tournament is either third or fourth.
Here is the link to ESPN's article about the Maui Invitational:
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/61669/bracket-reveal-maui-invitational
Here is a link to the Bracket:
http://espn.go.com/photo/preview/!pdfs/120725/2012_Maui_Bracket.pdf
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