Butler Notebook: Australia trip excites Bulldogs
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
INDIANAPOLIS – Butler players spoke with wide eyes and baited breath about their visit to Australia that begins this morning with the end of an 18-hour plane ride.
-I’m very excited,” said Khyle Marshall on Friday, despite the fact he doesn’t like flying and can’t sleep at 40,000 feet. -I’m pumped.”
Rookie coach Brandon Miller said the main focus of the trip is just for his 16 players to see Australia and learn the culture. Yes, four exhibition games are on the itinerary, but tourism and bonding take precedence. After all, the start of the season is still nearly three months away.
-It should be a blast,” said Alex Barlow, whose prior international travel consists of a brief car ride into Canada. -It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. That’s what Butler does here. You get a lot of great opportunities. We got to go to Maui last year. Now we get to go to Australia. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Everybody was looking forward to it, other than the plane ride.”
Making things easier is the Bulldogs’ in-house tour guide – Jackson Aldridge – a junior guard from Sydney, where the team will stay for nearly a week.
-He’s very familiar with the city,” Marshall said.
Located about an hour south of Sydney is Wollongong, home of the National Basketball League’s Hawks, who recently signed Butler’s leading scorer of a year ago, Rotnei Clarke, to a professional contract. Unfortunately, there will be no reunion, as Clarke is scheduled to fly to Australia on Aug. 14, the day the Bulldogs depart.
Kellen Dunham, for one, could do without the extra hobnobbing. He’s excited to have a passport, but he’s taking the basketball side of this journey a little more seriously.
-We’re going down there to win games,” Dunham said. -We’re going to enjoy it, but we’re going to try to get better, work on our defense and try to figure out what things we need to work on and see how much we’ve improved.”
FRESHMEN IMPRESS: Newcomers Nolan Berry, Rene Castro, Andrew Chrabascz, Elijah Brown, Michael Volovic and Steven Bennett have received atypically early work as a result of the 10 practices the NCAA allows for teams traveling overseas.
-Those freshmen are pretty much being thrown into the fire,” Marshall said. -They just get here and they’re already in official practices during the summer as opposed to waiting until the fall to see what it’s like. That gives them a good head start. I think they’ve done a really good job with it. They’ve done great improvements from Day 1. Solid.”
Dunham said he got an earful from all directions as a freshman last year and that this six-man class is enduring the same.
-It’s just been like, ‘Details! Pay attention!’” Dunham said. -That’s normal. They’ve been hustling. The effort’s there. That’s all you can ask for.”
What stands out most to Miller about these freshmen is their makeup.
-It’s the maturity they have in the locker room and on the court, the willingness to learn and where they’re at mentally,” Miller said. -A lot of times with freshmen you have to coach the mental aspect because it’s a guy who’s going to class and being away from his parents for the first time. We have really mature freshmen who have handled themselves in a great way.”
