Butler Postgame Thread

[AllHusky]

Our bench is Ross and Reibe, Malachi if we have to
With Silas taking a breather, I’d rather see Braylon Solo and Ross in that order handling the ball. I swear I’ve seen Ross look ok more than once handling the ball in a secondary support role

 

[AllHusky]

Mullins has yet to give us a full game of dominance. I guess he is just not there yet. Maybe it is his lack of bulk, but he seems to disappear for extended periods. Can't expect too much from a freshmen, but the potential is clearly there. Just waiting for that moment when he decides to be our best player. He is a surprisingly good rebounder. But he has gotten beat badly off the dribble a few times lately. I don't have confidence he can defend without fouling.

He sat with foul trouble late first half and never seemed to get it going in the second half

 

[Umami Zen]

Bounce back BE road win- Solid offense. Solo looks like his wrist strength is back and was shooting with confidence tonight. Been awhile. Other starters played well but AK had an uncharacteristically quiet game. Team shooting percentages continue to be encouraging.

Start of a new winning streak as we clean some stuff up for the stretch run. Keep stacking Ws

 

[RuffRuff]

You think there are 20+ freshmen in the p5 who are more productive, relative to their teams offense and overall skill level (and defense for that matter) than Braylon Mullins? You actually think that?

Yes, want the list? There are two in the BE alone.

 

[ucp990411]

I have always thought that if all the bench players are playing together they are set up to fail. Sprinkle the bench in with 3 or 4 starters and they will be more successful. Reibe played well when he started and just had to blend in. Stewart is the best example, plays well when not too much is expected. Smith played well early in the season when he got minutes with the starters. Ross tries to do too much when he is in with Reibe, Stewart and Smith. When they are all in together, who will be the go to guy?

 

[homunculus]

Solid win. There were negatives but there usually are, this is college basketball. We just saw the mighty Wolverines spend most their game down by double digits against a similar level of team.

I don’t know why we have suddenly decided to be sloppy with the ball. Two games in a row, we’re just fumbling the ball away, largely unforced. Good thing we cleaned it up as the game progressed.

No, “our defense” wasn’t bad. Reed was bad on the PnR, chasing the ball repeatedly. Reed, not “our D.” It seems the staff finally hammered it into his head and that eventually changed the game. Then that also put him in position for easy rebounds.

I too would like to see more from the bench, both Stewart and Ross seemed to backslide again, and Reibe seems to have hit a mid season freshman wall. Smith has somewhat disappeared but that coincides with Demary’s emergence, who has been taking a solid grip on the leadership of this team, with some hiccups.

It’s so great to see Ball come back to life. Hopefully he keeps it up. Then Reed in the 2nd half, and Mullins made huge shots. All around, another team giving us their best shot on the road but we withstood it and overpowered them, as top teams do.

Oh, by the way, I don’t believe Butler set one single legal screen, which makes your defense look worse than it was, because it gives them an unfair advantage, which is why they’re illegal.

 

[Magic32]

Watching the team these last few weeks makes me wish we had an athletic freak like Samson for a rim rattling dunk or just someone that can aggressively go to the basket like teams do against us.
Defense needs to get much better because the team is shooting 50% or better from field and 40% or better from three and we are still in tight games down to the wire. I want an old fashioned beat down of an opponent.

 

[djct1999]

I mentioned it in the chat - he's a really nice player, but when compared to some of the freshmen that are really having great seasons this year, I'm not sure he's even in the top 20 when you look across the country. One part may be because we don't need him as much, another is that he's not an on ball player. He generally requires the offense to get him open most of the time, so unless the actions get him space, he's not really creating much. He doens't shoot a great % when he doesn't have space. Even Solo is showing more variety in his game, with the pump & drives to the middy or rim. It's not always pretty, but it's versatile. Mullins is 90% catch and shoot. It's hard to really dominate in any fashion when that's almost your entire bag.

Love Mullins, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for Hurley to not constantly overindex on shooters as it can be offensively limiting. This would have been the kind of year where could have used a really versatile athlete/scorer at the 3 with Solo at the 2.

Did you say that about Steph Castle to? Of course Mullins stats don’t compare with other freshman because he is never featured and plays within the system. Mullins without question is a lottery pick and I’d bet he is the type of kid a Gm becomes enamored w in pre draft and he goes top 10.

 

[navery12]

I thought our D was mainly the issue tonight. We scored 80. But it wasn’t super crisp. They seemed just lacking energy, for lack of a better way to describe it.

But Mullins had some great shots, Reed had some buckets, and really Solo shot us into a strong performance.

I agree the defense was bad, but if the offense wasn't crisp and lacking energy we should try playing that way more often. This was our 3rd best offensive rating of the season, behind the recent Creighton and Xavier games

 

[TheShot1990]

2 more turnovers inbounding the ball even though they rarely pressured us.
My high school lacrosse coach had several predesigned plays he'd yell out "Cornell!, Villanova! Yale!" on our inbounds to break whatever press the opponent set up. It worked. UConn's plan seems to be see who's open, telegraph a pass with your eyes for 2 seconds and then lob up a 50-50 ball.

I agree we seem vulnerable to a big muscular 4. Stewie did a great job on Dixon last year. I want that Stewie back.

A few very knowledgeable posters have said in the past they hate the high hedge. I know it impedes the ball handler but it leads to dumb fouls away from the basket and left Jones wide open for the slam last night. Maybe our bigs should stay home as rim protectors more.

 

[Mr. French]

I agree the defense was bad, but if the offense wasn't crisp and lacking energy we should try playing that way more often. This was our 3rd best offensive rating of the season, behind the recent Creighton and Xavier games

That’s mostly cuz Butler’s D isn’t great and Solo shot lights out. But yeah it wasn’t BAD it just didn’t feel crisp aside from a couple spurts.

 

[mauconnfan]

It’s a good win no matter. But again, can’t play a half like the first one against a team from the 2nd round on in the dance, they will bury us. The intensity on defense was lackluster which I find very worrisome considering the loss they were coming off of. Still lots to improve.

Good things - Solo didn’t have any adhesive on and shot the ball well, that’s a good sign. One rebound isn’t. Silas was very solid again, had 2-3 times he got to the 5-6ft area and tried to oop it to Reed, please just shoot those. Reed great 2nd half, big difference and made fast decisions on passes as well. They need to ask him NOT to hedge anymore he’s not very good at it at all. Puts the whole defense in scramble mode and leads to lay ins or fouls. Alex the friendly ghost, 2 in a row not very physical and stupid reach ins. Needs to get back to being Alex and stick his nose back in. Mullins again solid start, but then we don’t run much for him. Can we call JC and get those double screens cooking again? And many like to say he’s a crappy defender I disagree. He does float too much and reach, but he can guard.

Now the bench…….


Next!!

 

[RuffRuff]

Did you say that about Steph Castle to? Of course Mullins stats don’t compare with other freshman because he is never featured and plays within the system. Mullins without question is a lottery pick and I’d bet he is the type of kid a Gm becomes enamored w in pre draft and he goes top 10.

Steph was in a terrible HS class, apples & oranges:

List of frosh this year based on PPG per 36, only draft prospects. He's 16 here, but you can add kids that aren't draft prospects this year like Acaden Lewis & Nigel James, others as well.

A kid like Tounde could have been a really nice fit in bringing in that athlete we are sorely missing. This team is simply missing athletecism. Not sure why Hurley has completely abandoned that profile since it was at the core of his B2B.

• AJ Dybantsa — 26.9 ppg
• Darryn Peterson — 26.6 ppg
• Cameron Boozer — 25.2 ppg
• Ebuka Okorie — 23.9 ppg
• Caleb Wilson — 22.8 ppg
• Darius Acuff — 22.1 ppg
• Mikel Brown Jr. — 21.7 ppg
• Nate Ament — 21.0 ppg
• Tounde Yessoufou — 21.0 ppg
• Keaton Wagler — 20.2 ppg
• Brayden Burries — 19.7 ppg
• Meleek Thomas — 19.6 ppg
• Kingston Flemings — 19.2 ppg
• Hannes Steinbach — 18.8 ppg
• Koa Peat — 18.5 ppg
• Braylon Mullins — 16.2 ppg
• Amari Allen — 14.8 ppg
• Chris Cenac Jr. — 14.1 ppg

 

[Rocktheworld]

@80shusky start the train back up brother

 

[Lafayette]

First half AK’s 2 fouls had him ride pine.

Reed should not hedge without AK as Stew and Ross are not big enough to handle the void.

Also our bigs are not great at reading a play where Solo or Silas are gonna drive as they do not seal off defenders.

Positives were Solo’s shooting, Braylon’s first half and Reed’s 2nd half.

Looking forward it will be fun to see Abraham guard Mullins

 

[Inyatkin]

Yes, want the list? There are two in the BE alone.

I'm the kind of UConn fan who posts at 4:54 a.m. that there are 20 freshmen better than our projected lottery pick. Never change, man

 

[jibsey]

How many times last night did they penetrate to the hoop and handoff for an easy basket? How does that happen that no one is covering that player? The game plan for teams like St. John’s or anyone who has athletic strong players is just to power to the rim and Butler did that too. Clingan used to put a stop that that stuff. Reibe has the size but they score right through him. He needs to turn into The Hulk next season.
Mullins doesn’t miss fadeaway pull ups with the clock winding down inside the line.

 

[Deepster]

Lots of talk about lack of production from the bench. This is the time of year young start to skinny down the rotation and send your best 8 out there. Smith and Reibe are not going to get more minutes unless the game script and fouls dictate it. That’s how it works.

 

[freescooter]

Championship caliber teams don't lose back to back games. Showed a lot of character responding to every Butler run.

Still really disappointing the play we are getting from the bench. Not going to cut it in March.

Championship caliber teams don’t lose to Butler in any case.

I agree that the bench is very suspect. No Diara or Joey California or Samson Nohnson to give you a boost, that’s for sure. I’ve come to accept that Ross is mainly a defensive guy and if he scores it’s gravy. Reibe seems to have regressed or maybe he played over his head early and returned to his true level now that he is getting less time and Stewart and Smith just seem to have no idea. Their roles are to let guys rest for short periods in hope we stay even. We aren’t going to gain ground.

 

[freescooter]

Offense up to 20 on KenPom. Good to see that improving as the season goes on.

Oh well thank heavens that happened. Do you get a banner for KenPom?

 

[Karmacop]

Probably won't be tomorrow when Butler falls below 75 in the NET. Hopefully they can get back into the top 75.

Looks like Butler only dropped to 74, which I kind of expected given that a loss to UConn less than the spread shouldn't have hurt them much. So it's another Quad 1 win for the good guys.

 

[Karmacop]

Oh well thank heavens that happened. Do you get a banner for KenPom?

Jeez, lighten up. It's a metric that shows the offense is improving. Which is a good thing, right?

 

[dennismenace]

Bizjacks wrist/forearm is definitely broken based on that replay

That would be a shame. Guy is absolutely fearless going to the rim and gets off some incredible shots. Credit coach Thad Motta. He is one of the coaches around who gets his guys to continually hustle. Danny really extolls him as someone who is a great coach but just doesn't get the NIL money and Butler in Indiana isn't considered a place most would want to have their college career.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I thought for sure the challenge was going to blow up in our face again. Once again they were correct that it was out off Butler, but I was supremely confident, and ultimately very wrong, that they would call the foul on Reibe. Am I confusing the rule, could they have switched to a foul on Reibe?

 

[navery12]

The idea that we shouldn't have recruited Braylon Mullins is so absurd I don't even know where to begin with countering that point