After having Ronald Nored start the majority of four seasons at point guard and having a power-conference transfer in Rotnei Clarke come in and start for one season, the point guard position will be wide open next season, with three potential candidates: Alex Barlow, Jackson Aldridge, and incoming recruit Rene Castro.
While Barlow is getting minutes now and starting alongside Rotnei Clarke, I don't know that he is necessarily the future Butler starting point guard for a couple of reasons. First, Butler is losing a lot of scoring after this season with the departure of Rotnei Clarke and Andrew Smith. Essentially being a non-scorer, I don't know if the Bulldogs can afford to leave him on the floor for long stretches of time next season, especially if they are struggling to score. This is similar to last season, and also why he didn't play much for the first 34 games last season. Since the Bulldogs didn't score much last season, Barlow being on the floor would have only made it worse. In my mind, Barlow would be best served next year bringing energy and a strong defensive presence to the floor of the bench.
Jackson Aldridge is an enigma. Many fans thought he could be the future point guard for Butler, leading them on offense. However, he is shooting just 13% from the field this season in limited minutes. While he has kept turnovers down compared to last season, but will not stay on the floor with poor offense since he is not exactly making up for it on defense. If he puts his offensive game together, shooting the ball well and having a better assist-to-turnover ratio, Aldridge could potentially start at point guard next year. However, those are a lot of ifs, and he will have to improve very quickly as he is currently towards the bottom of Butler's depth chart.
Rene Castro is apparently a combo-guard who has the ability to penetrate the lane greater than Barlow or Aldridge. At 6'1, he might not be a traditional point guard, maybe more of a scoring point guard similar to Mike Green (2006-2008). Considering that Butler is doing well with a scoring point guard this season and that Roosevelt Jones is a point forward, there is no reason why Castro couldn't do what Ronald Nored did and be Butler's starting point guard right from day 1. Still, he will be a freshman and he will still need time to adjust to the college game, so I wouldn't expect too much too early on.
In summary, none of these three players have locked up the starting PG spot for next season, all have weaknesses that they need to improve on, and it will be an exciting battle next fall for the starting point guard position.
I am going an NBA game on Saturday night, so I will watch the Butler @ Vanderbilt matchup on ESPNU recorded on Sunday morning and probably have a game recap up on the blog by Sunday afternoon.
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