1/6/15 Big East Games

[billyjack]

Butler vs PC was a great game, with a bunch of ties and lead changes. Last 10 minutes, i dont think it was more than a 3 point game.

As friar321 said, Butler was outhustling and outplaying PC in the first half... several Friars were walking around like zombies. Cooley then benched 3 starters, and played only 5 guys almost the entire 2nd half... 1 Dunn, 2 Lomomba, 3 Bancroft, 4 Henton, and 5 Chukwu. Focused on defense, and only Dunn and Henton were options on offense.

This group of 5 cut down on stupid turnovers, and 5 held Butler to 20% shooting in the second half. Besides Dunn and Henton, keys were Chukwu's rebounding and blocks, as well as Chrabascz getting into foul trouble. Like Bill Marsh noticed, the boxscore must be a mess. Butler has a great team, and PC definitely stole a game here. PC had some luck late too, for example when we were down by 4 and Dunn banked in a 3...

[GumbyDamnit!]

Made the trip up to MSG. SJU must drive their fans nuts. 1-6 they have as much talent as anyone but I don't think they are mentally tough or smart. Harrison is a killer. Can score at will; such a terrific player. But when the game got physical and a little chippy SJU just lost their composure completely. They seemed affected by every whistle and more concerned with talking to the Nova players and the refs, then bearing down and playing tough SJU ball. If they had more discipline they'd be so much better. I blame Lavin, not the collection of talent he has brought in.

[SJHooper]

Made the trip up to MSG. SJU must drive their fans nuts. 1-6 they have as much talent as anyone but I don't think they are mentally tough or smart. Harrison is a killer. Can score at will; such a terrific player. But when the game got physical and a little chippy SJU just lost their composure completely. They seemed affected by every whistle and more concerned with talking to the Nova players and the refs, then bearing down and playing tough SJU ball. If they had more discipline they'd be so much better. I blame Lavin, not the collection of talent he has brought in.

SJU is not afraid of being physical at all. This is the same team that threw punches at a top 25 Notre Dame team a few years back (we beat them once too). This is the same team that got in scuffles with Cuse when we beat them this year. Harrison is always being knocked down or shoved. Obekpa is not afraid of anyone. Pointer isn't either. So I don't get the "losing composure" when things get physical part. This team thrives on that stuff IMO.

The score is extremely deceiving, because this was a fantastic game up until SJU just ran out of gas with no bench and the out rebounding due to the massive size/depth advantage Nova had. Rysheed Jordan is one of the biggest busts in recent memory and probably up there in SJU history. Lavin literally forgot how to recruit for 2 years now, and this is what happens.

Lavin needs to go. Like now. He will never win anything here. Forget a national championship. Forget a Big East championship. Forget a deep run in the tourney. It seems impossible to even MAKE the tourney with him as coach. Hell, even in the NIT we can't win. With a full team out there and 2 good recruiting years, we would have taken it right down to the wire with Nova. But because he is a terrible coach he put us in a terrible position. 0-5 to start last year 0-3 to start this year. This team might be close to .500 overall after the Duke game. And to think we were just top 15. I hate wasting my time and money on a program coached by Lavin. His time is over.

[Bill Marsh]

Butler vs PC was a great game, with a bunch of ties and lead changes. Last 10 minutes, i dont think it was more than a 3 point game.

As friar321 said, Butler was outhustling and outplaying PC in the first half... several Friars were walking around like zombies. Cooley then benched 3 starters, and played only 5 guys almost the entire 2nd half... 1 Dunn, 2 Lomomba, 3 Bancroft, 4 Henton, and 5 Chukwu. Focused on defense, and only Dunn and Henton were options on offense.

This group of 5 cut down on stupid turnovers, and 5 held Butler to 20% shooting in the second half. Besides Dunn and Henton, keys were Chukwu's rebounding and blocks, as well as Chrabascz getting into foul trouble. Like Bill Marsh noticed, the boxscore must be a mess. Butler has a great team, and PC definitely stole a game here. PC had some luck late too, for example when we were down by 4 and Dunn banked in a 3...

Thanks for the run down, Billy. I really hated to have missed that game. Kudos to Cooley for pushing the right buttons. It appeared that ?Chukwu was a monster inside in the second half.

[stever20]

one thing for St John's that is hurting them is their opponents are actually making free throws in conference play...

Seton Hall 22-31
Butler 14-20
Nova 12-16
total of 48-67 or 71.6%

even with those 3 games, St John's opponents are shooting for the season only 60.1%- or 5th in the nation worst(that's worse than it was before- when St John's opponents were shooting the worst in the country from the line). So while in the OOC- St Mary's only shot 9-17 from the line which hurt them big time- in a 6 point win for St John's, in a 4 point loss for St John's vs Butler- Butler went 14-20. Pretty much the games are the same- with that one exception. Even the Syracuse game, Cuse went only 10-20 from the line(there's something just right about a Syracuse team shooting poorly from the line isn't it?)

[Bill Marsh]

The first half was sluggish. PC made shots but turned it over and Butler struggled to score but out rebounded and out toughed PC for the 50/50 balls in route to the halftime lead.
Cooley came out second half and started 3 new players. 3 starters did not play at all in the second half (derosiers, bentil, lindsay). The other guys stepped in and just played tougher. Defense was great from PC, cut back on the turnovers, and Dunn took over with 20+ in the second half.
Butler is a tough physical team. Just need someone else to emerge as a reliable scoring option besides Dunham.

This league is so tough. Really not 1 night off.
MARQ has not become the pushover once anticipated, Depaul is winning games. St Johns played well tonight and the blowout score does not indicate how close it was. 0-3 and in the top 25 tells you something about the league.

Thanks, friar321, for some game details. That really was a big win for the Friars against a tough team Butler team.

[dmac80]

Big road win for PC shaking up the lineup. Lots of concerns too but I think most teams are in that boat.

8500 and change at MSG for nova SJU seems like a weak draw. Lavin should be fired if this tailspin continues.

[Professor_Bulldog]

Very disappointed Butler couldn't capitalize on the st johns game, I think today could've gone a long way toward gaining a bit of separation from the glut in the middle of the conference. Oh well, it was certainly entertaining and a darn good game to see in person.

Just wish I had a win to savor on my 2 hour drive out of Indy

[Irishdawg]

Butler has a great team

Appreciate the compliment, but I don't think this is true at all. Butler has a great group of kids that work their tails off, but they aren't a great team. I wouldn't even call them a good team in this league. They have one legitimate offensive option in Dunham, and it's almost impossible for them to score once a team decides that he isn't going to beat them. They don't have any size, which is part of the reason why Providence just destroyed them on the glass in the 2nd half. I think they'll win some games simply because they work too hard not to, but they might be the least talented team in this league, and this is something that must be addressed starting this offseason for Coach Holtmann.

I do think that their freshmen have a chance to be good players in this league, but even there, Providence's freshmen are on an entirely different level than Butler's. I think you'll start to see Butler lose a lot of games like we saw last night, much like last year's team did. I do think as a whole they are a better team than last year, but the league is much, much stronger, so there will probably be a lot of frustrating nights for Butler fans.

[Omaha1]

Me and the misses went to bed..... didn't see the end of the game.... surprised PC won. Nice job.