Butler was defeated 78-61 by Illinois in the Maui Invitational Championship game. Here is my analysis, after having watched the entire game live on ESPN.
Shot Distribution
Rotnei Clarke and Kellen Dunham combined to take 30 shots, while Andrew Smith took just 4 shots. Smith and Marshall combined for just 10 points in the game, while Clarke and Dunham continued to fire threes at will. For Butler to be successful, they need a balanced attack on offensive, with the interior game of Smith and Marshall and the exterior game of Clarke and Dunham.
Stevens Needs to Decide on a Backup Point Guard
He still has not made it clear who will handle the ball when Rotnei Clarke is subbing out or playing off the ball. While Aldridge received minutes against Marquette and UNC, Alex Barlow received more minutes in the Illinois game. It is not fair for either one of them to have them just play a couple minutes each at point guard each game.
Who is the Three Point Shooter?
While Butler held Illinois top two three point shooters (Richardson and Paul) to 4/14 from three, they left forward Tyler Griffey open on multiple occasions, and he ended up shooting 4/5 on 3 pointers. Griffey had not shot many threes this season, but Butler still needed to recognize that he was capable and close out harder on him, as a couple of his threes were huge momentum swings in favor of Illinois.
Dunham off the Mark
Kellen Dunham was 0/9 from behind the arc, something I bet he's never done before in his basketball career. As poorly as he played, backup Chase Stigall is not really challenging for minutes. Stigall, who has been known for his defense the past couple of seasons, has been quite susceptible to allowing dribble penetration so far this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment