Butler fan here, and I think you guys are starting to stretch a few things. There may be a poster or two on our board who thinks this will be a blowout, but in my opinion and a majority of others on our board, we think this should be a pretty good ball game. At this point, we aren't even close to the team we were last year. We certainly have more "talent" than a year ago, but with a few new faces, it will take some time for us to come together as a team. I think once we're able to gel together, players find their roles, then we'll have the ability to be better than last year, but right now, that?s not the case. The loss of Crone is a big problem right now; however, Howard's presence in the post is a bright spot for us, in addition to our reliable guard play. We obviously have a lot of offensive options this season: Green and Graves can dribble drive or shoot, Campbell is lethal from deep and as I said with Howard, we now have a back to the basket scorer in the post (something we haven't had in a long time).
On the other side of the floor, I think we're still figuring things out defensively. Sure, Butler will always have a strong defense, but with new faces, we had some mental lapses against Ball State and they were able to score some easy hoops...but it wasn't from a lack of effort. I guess the only other concerns Butler might have right now is the uncharacteristic 11 turnovers we had at BSU. Sure, most teams would die to only turn it over 11 times, but for Butler, that's way too much. I'm not sure if it was the adrenaline pumping from the start of a new season or our players are still learning each other's style, but I'd like to think we'll tighten up our play and take care of the ball as the season goes along. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer those.
As for your disagreement with "the Butler program has traditionally been one of the best of the so-called "mid-major" basketball programs over the last decade..." I don't think that is too far off. Butler's record in the last decade is 222-98. Of course, the standard reply is that the Bulldogs play in a weak conference. Fair enough, but Butler justifies itself by having five NCAA Tournament appearances with five tournament wins, including two Sweet 16 appearances in five years. Until you can find me four to five other "mid-majors" with a similar resume, then it's safe to say the above statement is in fact true.
Not here to get into a pi$$ing match, I'd love to chat about the game. Thanks.
-sses!
