Butler Game Thread

[SeattleJay]

I had a similar thought that Traudt would have looked better at the back up 5 against these guys last night for a few minutes. Fred had a tough night.

It seemed to work for Motta with his third string center hitting 2 threes

[TrueBlueJay]

WTF happened to 14.3 last night??

[ictjay]

9 people played and scored for Butler. Arguably there best player didnt suit up last night.

[3ontheway]

With MM in the doghouse, or just deemed a bad matchup at the 4 last night, the fact that we don't have an atheltic 4 to come in and give good minutes, or any minutes that is, to guard and rebound is very troubling as we go forward. Numerous times FF got caught checking a guy he had no business trying to guard. That played a big role in them being 1 shy of 100 on our home court.

[Duke1Agn]

We ran into a buzzsaw. Not really much we can complain about. Butler was hitting shots that were contested, from half court, and NBA level midrange fadeaways and floaters. Could we have gone zone? Maybe. We had one of our 3 best offensive games of the year, at home, and it still wasn’t enough. Butler would have beaten just about anyone in the country last night.

More important than anything is Ashworth appears to have gotten comfortable and is now an offensive threat. That’s a huge positive for us moving forward.

[blueblood]

This is one of those games where I cannot wait for Jacob’s deep dive analysis. Was the defense as bad as the casual observer might claim? Was this CU ineptitude or holy shit Butler shot-making? Probably a lot of both, but I’m looking forward to an unemotional overview.

7-2 in last 9. Ashworth has found something, which has me as excited as anything. I don’t feel as bad about this loss as Villanova, UNLV, or Colorado State. This felt a bit more fluky. I hope it was. Again, on to Providence. Finish 7-2 in our last 9 with a win over #1 and we are right there heading into Big East tourney.

Very interested in his analysis also. The defensive strategy is to deny the 3 and layups and give away the mid range jumper as it is the hardest shot to hit. On offense unless you are Trey take 3s and layups. Mac is all in on the statistical approach. Last night it worked on offense but not on defense. Butler was not only hitting 3s but could not miss on midrange jumpers. If you are Mac do you say it was a statistical anomaly and move on saying it won't happen again or do you change something? Would be interested in why they didn't crowd the lane with a zone? Thing is how do you stop a team that shoots 60% from the 3 point range and overall shooting 55% for the game? The anger in me wants to shout bad defense but was it?

[3ontheway]

I had a similar thought that Traudt would have looked better at the back up 5 against these guys last night for a few minutes. Fred had a tough night.

It seemed to work for Motta with his third string center hitting 2 threes

Don't think I'd consider 95 seconds by Fred a "night". Did Mac ever say Traudt was sick or unavailable? Weird game last night. Tough to watch, albeit a crazy entertaining game, a team without their PG have 9 guys light us up and we have 4 points from bench and a 6 man roster... shit happens, short memory, move on.

[jaysfor3]

The crowd was great last night. We were loud and helped as much as possible.

I would have liked to see us switch-up the defense periodically to throw off their rhythm. Mac will forget more than I ever know about basketball, but I didn't really understand why we didn't try some zone schemes to mix it up on D as what we were doing on D obviously didn't slow them down one bit. One additional stop in the game would have been the difference!

Credit to Butler, they made some mind-blowing, very difficult shots. Outside of maybe that Villanova game when Doug and Ethan went nuts, I am pretty sure I've never seen a college team shoot consistently at such a high level.

Goes back to my earlier point, if your fast ball, ie.; "our traditional D is setting-up home runs, base hits continually," why don't you have some change-up pitches, i.e.; "Zone D" to maybe see if you can get them out of a rhythm?

We could have just as easily won last night (obviously based upon the score, losing by 1) despite getting outplayed on turnovers and shooting percentage.

Lastly, I need to watch the replay but it looked to me like FF was "karate chopped" hard across the arm on dribbling to the hoop with 5 seconds left on the clock where it then turned into a loose ball scramble. From my view in the arena, there should have been a foul called for 2 shots as we were in the double bonus down 1.

One other observation, the crowd was booing on the Butler injuries due to I heard several around me saying they're faking it so that they can stop the clock and get in their sets and/or get in the bonus. Not sure if that's true, again, need to watch the replay.

[Jaybacker '98]

I would have liked to see us switch-up the defense periodically to throw off their rhythm. Mac will forget more than I ever know about basketball, but I didn't really understand why we didn't try some zone schemes to mix it up on D as what we were doing on D obviously didn't slow them down one bit. One additional stop in the game would have been the difference!

^^This 1000%. I can't imagine that I am alone but I can't handle much more of our opponents doing the same thing over and over with success and us not doing anything to adjust. The entire offensive game plan against us starts with someone having their dribble going towards the basketball off of pick on the left side of the free throw line. If Kalk backs down they are happy to take floaters, if he steps up, someone cuts to the hoop for a layup and if the defender goes under the screen regardless of what Kalk does teh screener will be wide open at the top of the key for a three. How about a 1-3-1 or something that prevents the dribbler from getting to the FT line with a head of steam towards the hoop cause once that happens their % of scoring seems to go up exponentially.

[TrueBlueJay]

For all those calling for a zone - you do realize Butler shot 60% from three point land last night. How do you break a zone? Shoot the other team out of it.