Butler Basketball

The Butler Bulldogs are having a dream season. They beat two top 10 ranked teams in dramatic fashion. The first win came in an exhilarating 88-86 overtime victory over the then-top-ranked Indiana Hoosiers. Former walk-on Alex Barlow scored the game-winning basket with just under three seconds left.

Then on Saturday night, ESPN College Gameday came to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first time ever. The Bulldogs hosted No. 8 Gonzaga in the 9 p.m. primetime matchup. It was huge to showcase Butler like that, and the team didn't disappoint with Roosevelt Jones' last second floater to give the Bulldogs a 64-63 victory over Gonzaga.

With both of those thrilling victories and 14 more wins, Butler sits 16-2 and in perfect position to possibly grab one of the four No. 1 seeds in March's NCAA Tournament.

Butler will likely be 26-2 going into the epic battle with conference foe VCU on March 2nd. The rematch of the first national semifinal in Houston two years ago will be a showcase that day. If Butler can pull that win out and beat Massachusetts and Xavier to close out the regular season, it will surely be in conversation for a No. 1 seed.

Really, there's not much competition for the top seeds this season. Duke, Indiana, Michigan, Louisville, Syracuse, Kansas, Arizona and Butler are the only teams that will be in that conversation. The first seven on that list are very capable of getting beat and will likely fall at least one to two more times the remainder of the season if not more.

Butler has the luxury of being in a very good Atlantic 10 conference, but being the top dog makes it easier for them to win. They're clearly the best in their new conference, and since they're in one of top seven conferences in basketball, they won't get penalized like they did in the past when playing in the Horizon League.

They also will be in consideration of the top seed by how good they are. What I like about Butler is they're an all-around great team. They don't have many flaws.

It all starts at the top with head coach Brad Stevens. He's arguably the best coach in the nation right now. He motivates his team so well and makes the right adjustments nearly 100 percent of the time.

That trickles down to the players as Butler is one of the most physical teams in the nation. They're not afraid to body teams up and make it difficult to score. They have one of the best defenses in America and play great on ball defense.

They also play well together as a team defense. Their communication and movement is superb. They just know how to work well together and rotate to shooters.

Another area where they're good is rebounding. They always seem to have at least three guys crashing the boards with everyone putting his body on a man. Again they work together as a team collectively when crashing the boards to make sure teams don't get second opportunities.

Then on offense, they're among the most efficient in the nation. Roteni Clarke is the best pure shooter in all of basketball as he can stroke it from anywhere on the court. His fellow running mate, freshman Kellen Dunham, is a deadly shooter as well. If you give either of these two space, they will make you pay.

Add in Andrew Smith in the middle and Roosevelt Jones, who doesn't have a great shot but is effective at getting to the rim and keeping possessions alive with his hustle, and this Bulldogs team just knows how to win.

Butler hasn't lost in over two months, and that momentum will carry them a long way. I've seen a lot of basketball, and I think this Bulldogs team can beat anyone. They're the best in the nation right now and honestly could dismantle Duke if they met.

Don't be surprised come March when Butler is in No. 1 seed talks. How great would it be if they could get one of the top two seeds in the Indianapolis region?

Saturday’s game between Butler and Indiana in Indianapolis was one that may ultimately go down as the best of this regular season. 

The Bulldogs’ improbable 88-86 overtime win over top-ranked Indiana was played out a little bit like—and I know it’s cliché—an alternative, collegiate version of the movie “Hoosiers”. 

Actually, that analogy may be unfair to Butler.  Despite being unranked and beating No. 1, the Bulldogs have already acquitted themselves very well this year and have an extensive recent history of beating top teams. 

On the other hand, the movie analogy may work because of who ultimately decided the outcome.

Alex Barlow, the unlikeliest of heroes, gave Butler the upset.  The sophomore point guard—and former walk-on—took the ball and put up a driving, right-handed scoop that bounced around the rim, seemingly for forever, before falling with just a few seconds to play.

It is hard not to think of Butler’s dramatic win without thinking of another game from about this time a year ago, also in the state of Indiana.  While the finish wasn’t quite the same, last year’s game also featured a team winning on a last-second shot that beat the nation’s top team.

I am of course talking about last year’s Kentucky-Indiana classic, where the Hoosiers won 73-72 on a three-pointer by Christian Watford as time expired.

What makes that game so similar to Saturday’s shocker in Indy?  What might make this year’s game just as significant—if not more so—than last year’s thriller in Bloomington?

Unranked beats No. 1, in Indiana

Butler—like Indiana last year—came into the game unranked.  That is often the most convenient reason to write off a team’s chances when facing a top-ranked team. 

However, both teams entered their respective games among the stronger of the unranked.  Butler, at 7-2, already owned wins over then-No. 9 North Carolina, Marquette and Northwestern.  Indiana went into its game last December undefeated at 8-0.  The Hoosiers had beaten N.C. State and—you guessed it—Butler prior to facing Kentucky.

For many who follow the Bulldogs rather closely—or anyone who remembers the fact that they recently won 10 NCAA Tournament games in two years—this game may not have been as big a surprise.  It also helped that the game was played in downtown Indy, meaning any of the neutral (as in Notre Dame or Purdue) fans were pulling for Butler, with their support building as the game remained close later on. 

Playing at home in Assembly Hall last year, Indiana enjoyed the kind of home-court advantage that can make knocking off No. 1 a very real possibility.  While Butler’s team this year was a little more proven, last year’s Hoosiers certainly had the talented pieces to challenge Kentucky.  The Wildcats were still coming together themselves at that time, with that elite freshman class still learning to play together.

For Indiana, the win immediately thrust them back into the national spotlight, garnering it a new level of respectability and helped to lay the foundation for the success the team has enjoyed over the past year.

Overcoming Late-game Adversity

Butler has developed an incredible ability to battle against anyone, regardless of possible size, talent or depth disparities.  All three of those became even more prevalent late in the second half against Indiana.

Within a span of 17 seconds, Butler’s two best frontcourt players—Andrew Smith and Roosevelt Jones—fouled out of the game.  The two had combined for 28 points and 21 rebounds and helped to make Indiana’s elite big man, Cody Zeller, rather average throughout the game.

Butler led by five after both fouled out with just under two minutes to play, but was unable to hold that lead.  The Bulldogs were forced to settle for overtime after Yogi Ferrell’s game-tying three with 10 seconds left. 

Going into the extra period, Butler was given little chance to prevail given the loss of Smith and Jones, along with the big swing in momentum.  However, those are the situations where the Bulldogs seem to thrive.  Despite falling down by four points with two minutes to play, Butler ultimately came back to earn the improbable win.

Indiana had a bit different form of adversity to overcome, but like Butler, also came out on top. 

The Hoosiers led Kentucky throughout the second half and held a nine-point lead with eight minutes to go.  With the upset possibilities getting more and more real, they suddenly could not find the basket.

IU went on to make just one shot over the next seven minutes and fell behind by a point with two minutes to play.  The tone in the building went from one that sensed an extraordinary win to one sensing a devastating loss.

After the two teams traded baskets and Doron Lamb hit a free throw with six seconds to play, the stage was set for Indiana. 

Threes to Remember

Inbounding the ball at the end of the game, Indiana had two options.  One was to get the ball as close to the basket as possible and take its chances in five more minutes against the nation’s top team. 

The other was to win right then, or go home.  

Taking the ball inside the three-point line, Verdell Jones III held Indiana’s fate in his hands for a couple seconds.  He stopped, turned and found Watford beyond the three-point line.  Jones got the ball to him, giving Watford a relatively clean look from deep. 

Watford, of course, buried the three—all net.  Madness ensued at Assembly Hall.  The Hoosiers had an amazing win that will be talked about for years to come. 

In Saturday’s win over Indiana, Butler may not have hit a three-pointer quite as dramatic as Watford’s.  However, there were two consecutive long-range baskets that the Bulldogs’ upset would have never been possible without.

Rotnei Clarke is the kind of player that can routinely hit shots that even the best shooters in college basketball struggle with.  With his team trailing by four, and less than two minutes to play in the overtime, he hit one of those shots.  Clarke took a pass on the move and quickly fired from about 25 feet out—and nailed the shot.  Suddenly, Butler once again had a chance.

On the next possession, it was a veteran role player that followed up Clarke’s heroics.  Chase Stigall—forced into action down the stretch due to three players fouling out—took a pass from Clarke at the top of the key.  After a pass-fake that gave him a clear look, Stigall put up the three and buried it. 

The back-to-back threes put Butler up by two with a minute to go.  Despite allowing Indiana to tie the game, Barlow was ultimately able to win the game on his drive in the final seconds.  The drive, you could certainly argue, was made possible by the long-range potential of guys like Clarke, Stigall and Kellen Dunham.  Even in a tie game, each could have seen a look from deep in that situation.

While the endings were slightly different, both games were decided in the final seconds.  In each case, Goliath went down.

Just like Indiana’s win over Kentucky a year ago, Butler’s improbable win over the Hoosiers this past weekend will likely go down as the best game played between now and March. 

Coaches don't have the greatest amount of job security.

You can win a national championship one year and lose your job two years later—just ask former Auburn head football coach, Gene Chizik.

A few college basketball coaches probably don't spend many sleepless nights wondering whether or not they are going to be employed in the near future.

The names Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams come to mind.

After Butler beat No. 1 ranked/state-rival Indiana Saturday, a third name might rightfully belong in that group—Brad Stevens.

While he doesn't yet have the ultimate "skin on the wall" (a national championship), he has had an outrageous amount of success at a school (Butler) that very few people expect to thrive at the highest level of college hoops.

To say that Stevens has done exceptionally well in his first five seasons as the Bulldogs head coach is an understatement.

Butler's official website details the 36-year-old sideline leader's accomplishments this way:

"...Stevens has led the Bulldogs to a 139-40 record, four Horizon League regular season championships, three league tournament titles and five trips to postseason tournament play.  He owns the top-two, single-season win totals in Butler and Horizon League history, and he’s the only coach in school and league history to lead a team to the NCAA Division I National Championship game, something he’s done twice!"

It goes on to say:

"Stevens, who owns two Horizon League Coach of the Year awards, has rewritten the NCAA record book for Best Coaching Starts by Wins, He captured the five-year record (139), moving ahead of Everett Case of North Carolina State (1947-51) in 2011-12, and he owns the three-year (89) and four-year (117) records."

Stevens' season-by-season records (Wikipedia) are:

• 2007-08: 30-4
• 2008-09: 26-6
• 2009-10: 33-5
• 2010-11: 28-10
• 2011-12: 22-15

Stevens' coaching resume is filled with some very impressive individual wins. His Butler teams have beaten quite a few of the most legendary programs in college basketball: UCLA (2009), Ohio State (2009), Syracuse (2010), Michigan State (2010), Wisconsin (2011), Florida (2011), and this year, Marquette (2012), North Carolina  (2012) and Indiana (2012).

In Stevens' first year as Butler's head coach, his alumni newspaper from DePauw University detailed on Jan. 6, 2008 an article "Soon Many Will Know Brad Stevens" that Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star wrote. Kind of prophetic, don't you think?

If job security is the degree of confidence that someone has about keeping their current gig, Stevens may today be the most job-secure coach in college basketball.

Is Butler back? 

It’s hard to argue against that, based on what we saw from the Bulldogs on Tuesday night in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.  A convincing win—with the last two minutes aside—over the No. 9 team in the nation certainly provides full-blown support to that sentiment.

However, that game is only a part of the bigger, yet still relatively small, framework of the season thus far.

A day prior to beating down North Carolina, Butler won on a buzzer-beater in what was essentially a coin-flip game.  Going in, most would have agreed the opening-round game with Marquette was a pretty even matchup of two good-but-not-great teams.

Step back a bit further from anything that’s gone down in Maui the past two days.  Remember Butler’s showing in the 24-hour Hoops Marathon? 

Butler fans certainly tried to forget quickly.  The Bulldogs fell hard in their first test of the season at Xavier.

The 15-point loss—and like the UNC game, this game wasn’t even that close—to  a team with fairly modest expectations heading into the season couldn’t have provided a whole bunch of optimism, as Butler got set to leave for Maui.

So, which best represents this year’s Butler Bulldogs? 

The answer: probably the Marquette game.  Or somewhere in between the double-digit win over UNC and the corresponding loss to Xavier. 

Another good answer might be just on the horizon (yes, pun on its former league).  Butler will take on Illinois tonight in the Maui Invitational Championship.  While the matchup might not wow you the way Duke and Kansas did a year ago, it should be quite competitive and meaningful for both teams. 

Illinois appears poised for a much-improved season under new coach John Groce, especially after easily handling its first two games in Maui.  This game, like Marquette, is a bit of a coin-flip that can show us even more about where Butler currently stands.

Beyond Maui, time will ultimately tell whether Butler exceeds or merely meets its expectations to finish sixth in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll.  The best measuring stick will be how the Bulldogs fare over the grind of playing numerous tough A-10 games against the likes of Temple, St. Joseph’s, UMass, VCU and of course Xavier (last week’s game did not count as a conference game).

Win or lose tonight, there is plenty of reason for excitement about this year’s Butler team.  However, we have a ways to go before we know just how good it can be.

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Weird. I wasn't aware that I had fallen asleep for four months and woken up in the middle of March.

Or at least that's what Butler's Rotnei Clarke's game-winner against Marquette made the start of the Maui Invitational feel like. It felt like madness. It felt like it was March already. 

More importantly, it feels like we're in for an insane season of college basketball. 

After the Golden Eagles' Junior Cadougan, who had been so good all game, made just one of his two free throws, Clarke took the ball down the court with Butler trailing 71-69 with just 10 seconds left.

It looked like disaster at first.

Clarke, an Arkansas transfer in his first year with Butler, had trouble simply getting the ball past half court. He was cut off on every move he made, but you would be crazy to think one of the best shooters in college basketball was about to give the ball up.

Even if it probably would have been the smart move.

Clarke, while hounded by multiple Marquette defenders, heaved up a shot-put type thing from about 30 feet away and absolutely drilled it.

Onions. 

The sharpshooting senior, who is no stranger to threes from that distance, was pressured by the Golden Eagles all day, and ended up with an inefficient 20 points on 7-of-21 shooting (4-of-14 from long distance).

Nonetheless, he made the shot that mattered.

This instantly goes down as a top nominee for play of the year, and it's going to be tough to beat, but knowing college basketball—heck, knowing the Maui Invitational—it's going to soon have some competition. 

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On March 21, Butler found itself playing in the Final Four for the third consecutive season. Unfortunately though, Butler's 2012 Final Four appearance came in the College Basketball Invitational
(CBI) rather than the slightly more prestigious NCAA Tournament.

Technically, Butler was back in a postseason Final Four, but the circumstances surrounding the contest could not have been more different. The CBI semifinal was not held at Lucas Oil or Reliant Stadium—instead the game took place on the Bulldogs' home court at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The opponent meanwhile was not a Kemba Walker led UCONN squad or Coach K's Duke Blue Devils, but rather a flailing Pittsburgh team that finished 12th in the Big East.

With that being said, Butler fans should take solace in the fact that Head Coach Brad Stevens does not plan on letting the Bulldogs fall into mediocrity. Stevens simply said "this is going to be a very demanding off-season,” when speaking of the immediate future of Butler basketball.

Last year's Butler team was not able to match up to the extremely high level of expectations that the program has come to put on itself. The good news is though that next season's Bulldog roster appears to possess the bite that was lacking throughout the 2011-12 campaign.

Butler brings back their top three leading scorers from last season in Andrew Smith, Khyle Marshall and Chrishawn Hopkins. This is particularly welcome news for a Bulldog team that only averaged a meager 63.3 points per game last year. Smith and Marshall are especially efficient shooters who will do the majority of their scoring around the basket. Roosevelt Jones also showed great promise as a freshman last year and will take on a bigger role as a sophomore.

Butler's high number of returning personnel is great in itself. Frankly though, it is the Bulldogs' newcomers that have me excited about this team's potential. Brad Stevens may not have won as many games as he would have liked on the court last season, but Stevens has been picking up some marquee victories on the recruiting trail as of late. Those recruiting victories that I reference come in the form of Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke and incoming freshman Kellen Dunham.

Rotnei Clarke is a deadly accurate three-point shooter who proved to be a high volume scoring guard during his time at Arkansas. Rotnei was named to the All-SEC second team as a junior with the Razorbacks. Clarke's arrival at the school could not be more timely. Butler needs an influx of scoring power as well as a replacement for departed guard and team leader Ronald Nored. Rotnei Clarke fills both of those needs perfectly.

Joining Rotnei on campus next season will also be freshman Kellen Dunham. Dunham was a top 100 recruit as rated by Rivals coming out of high school. His signing with Butler is particularly impressive considering that he garnered interest from nearby Big 10 powers Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Kellen is similar to Rotnei Clarke in that he is also a three-point marksman. In a player evaluation by Scout.com, high praise is given of Kellen saying that "Dunham has to go down as one of the best pure shooters in the class."

Clearly Brad Stevens has wasted no time in addressing the shooting and scoring woes that plagued his team last season.

Butler's return of established veterans as well as talented newcomers could not have come at a better time either as the Bulldogs will transition from the Horizon league to the Atlantic-10 conference this coming season. Needless to say, the in-conference competition that Butler will face on a nightly basis will be more daunting.

For the most part, the Bulldogs ran roughshod over their Horizon League competition. Now Butler will matchup with Atlantic-10 powers Temple, Xavier and St. Louis as well as fellow conference newbie Virginia Commonwealth. You might recall that Butler last faced Virginia Commonwealth in the semifinals of the 2011 Final Four.

There is reason to be optimistic about this Butler team's prospects next season. No, I would not rate them as a preseason top 25 team. I also would rank St. Louis as the top team in the Atlantic-10 heading into next season rather than the Bulldogs. With that being said, Butler has the look of an NCAA Tournament team rather than a CBI squad as we stand roughly three months before the opening of the upcoming college basketball season.

Brad Stevens will not allow this program to stay down for an extended period of time. While Butler may have gotten knocked down last season, they are certainly not out. That is why the smart money is on the Bulldogs trading punches with the top-tier of the Atlantic-10 and ultimately earning a Selection Sunday shout out next March.

Rotnei Clarke is one of the best three-point shooters in college basketball.

In three years at Arkansas, Clarke hit 274-of-653 (42 percent) shots from beyond the arc.

Two-thirds of his shots from the field were three-point attempts.

It's no big surprise that Clarke has also been a sharp-shooter from the free throw line, knocking down 86.3 percent of his FTs.

He led the Razorbacks in scoring (15.2 ppg) as a junior, and grabbed national media attention for dropping 13 threes on Alcorn State (scoring 51 points) as a sophomore.

At the conclusion of Clarke's junior season, Arkansas fired their head coach, John Pelphrey, and hired Mike Anderson as his replacement.

After some drama surrounding whether or not Clarke was going to remain a Razorback, he decided to transfer to Butler.

Brad Stevens' Bulldogs had a solid 2011-12 season, posting a 22-15 mark, but just about anything would have been a disappointment for a program that played in back-to-back NCAA Championship games.

Looking toward the 2012-13 season, a question hangs over the program: Is Clarke the missing piece for Butler to get back into the national conversation?

Stevens' roster is filled with talent and experience.

Of the nine players who logged double-figure minutes for the Bulldogs, only Ronald Nored does not return.

With almost everyone coming back, Butler retains 88 percent of their scoring and rebounding.

But, one of the aspects of the game that Stevens' 2011-12 squad struggled with was shooting, especially long-distance shooting.

As a team, Butler shot a frosty 28.1 percent from beyond the arc.

They didn't even make enough three's (5 per game) to qualify for the NCAA Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage stat for teams.

The Bulldogs weren't much better inside the arc, shooting 40.8 (No. 288 in the nation).

If Stevens can effectively insert Clarke into the mix, Butler could be a very pesky team to deal with come March Madness 2013.

And the senior Clarke may not have to carry all of the Bulldogs' three-point shooting load.

Stevens is also bringing in a four-star 6'5" SG (Kellen Dunham), who ESPNU says that he "goes about his business (like a) master craftsman applying his trade."

Butler's move to the Atlantic-10 became official this afternoon, and despite the trepidation of some, the Bulldogs basketball program should be just fine when it joins the higher-level conference in all sports in 2013.

Yes, Butler is a mid-major, so one common conception is that it should stay at its current level—that it can't consistently compete with better teams. Perhaps ascending to a multiple-bid league is too ambitious for a program that has morphed the Horizon League from a traditional mid-major conference into a perennial two-bid league?

The thing is, Butler produces a formidable basketball team year in and year out.

This past season stands out as an outlier over the last decade or so, but how could it not? Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard and Shawn Vanzant had led the Bulldogs to their second-consecutive runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament, and they all either graduated or left for the NBA following the season, leaving this year's team without a true leader.

As a result, Butler opened as a 4-6 squad. But then the Bulldogs beat Purdue, an NCAA tournament team. Two games later, they edged Stanford, the 2012 NIT champ.

Overall, Butler finished 22-15, so the team—though it still had its bouts with inconsistency—definitely grew as the season progressed.

So don't point to this particular season as a reason to doubt Butler's high potential in the A-10. Next year, the team should be even better because of another key factor in Butler's rise: recruiting.

Brad Stevens, like he does practically every year, is bringing in a solid freshman class, this one highlighted by an ESPNU Top 100 recruit. The trend of luring good basketball players to Hinkle Fieldhouse will only continue now that Stevens can sway high schoolers on consistently playing a higher level of competition, as well as having an even better chance at a tournament bid.

If anything, you can expect more heralded high school prospects to sign with Stevens because of this move.

As for the Atlantic-10, Butler is certainly an adequate replacement for Temple, which will join the Big East in all sports other than football in 2013. 

First of all, according to this article from ESPN.com, Butler and Temple spent nearly an identical sum on basketball in the 2009-10 season. Basketball budget would be one of the primary concerns regarding moving up a level, but Butler should be fine if it maintains such a level of expenses.

Second of all, when was the last time the Owls reached the Final Four? The answer: 1958. The Bulldogs were there just two seasons ago.

One issue that could arise, however, is Butler's geographical location. Instead of taking buses to games, the Bulldogs will generally need to fly.

However, overall, the move makes sense from both sides.