Butler Notebook: ‘Dawgs try again to show grace under pressure
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
With pressure defense seeming to throw Butler out of whack, there aren’t many places less inviting than Amherst, Mass., where yet another brand of aggressive Atlantic 10 basketball is practiced.
However, to coach Brad Stevens, whose Bulldogs are playing Massachusetts tonight, the forceful defense he will see in Amherst is incomparable to what swallowed his team whole in Richmond.
It is very different, Stevens said. It’s still very effective. UMass has done a great job on both ends of the floor. They really look to push on the offensive side. It’s another great challenge.
The Minutemen force turnovers on only 19.1 percent of opponent possessions, compared to 29.2 percent for Virginia Commonwealth, which hammered Butler 82-54 on Saturday. Instead, UMass pesters ball handlers with the primary goal of speeding up the game. Coach Derek Kellogg wants a quick tempo and lots of points. UMass leads the conference, and ranks in the top 20 nationally, with an average of 71.6 offensive possessions per game.
Kellogg finds little comfort in the Bulldogs’ recent struggles with teams that force the issue, and he admits Butler might draw his players away from their desired tempo.
We’ll be ready, Kellogg said. I’m not sure if any time is ever a good time to play a team like Butler. Every time you compete against them it’s going to be a tough, physical game. We play a good style, to try to get out in the open floor some and play pressure defense. While we create matchup problems for other teams, sometimes they can create some for us. It’ll be interesting. It should be fun to watch.
Kellogg said he expects the William D. Mullins Center to be either sold out or close. Butler has lost two straight to fall from the national rankings.
I’m anticipating a very good game, Kellogg said. I believe both teams will be playing their best.
Getting better, though, won’t be easy for Butler against Chaz Williams and the Minutemen, who have won two straight to improve to 18-9, the sixth-best overall record in the A-10.
It’s a potential at-large team on the road on their senior night, Stevens said.
MOVING ON: Stevens will be happy to tip off a fresh 40 minutes tonight after enduring the worst loss in his six years as head coach. Although he applied a softer perspective in the immediate aftermath, Stevens was unusually sour about the result in the days that followed.
We didn’t play well, he said. VCU had a lot to do with that. Coupled with our play, they really, really made us look bad. The way we were beaten didn’t leave a good taste in our mouth. You’d like to have these games back.
Butler and UMass are meeting for the first time. In fact, Butler has never played in the state, and only twice has faced opponents from Massachusetts. Stevens needs two victories to tie Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon for the most wins by a coach in his first six seasons.
PLANTING A SEED: The top four seeds in the Atlantic 10 tournament, which begins a week from today, receive a first-round bye. Saint Louis, VCU and La Salle have clinched byes. Butler, Temple and Xavier remain eligible for the final position.
The Bulldogs, 9-5 in league play, control their own destiny. They own the tiebreaker over Temple (10-5) courtesy of a head-to-head victory on Jan. 26. Xavier (9-6) visits Hinkle Fieldhouse in its season finale on Saturday. The Musketeers can clinch a bye with a victory over Butler accompanied by a Temple loss.
If Butler wins its final two games, it secures a pass to the tournament’s second round on March 15. If the Bulldogs drop their final two, they will not receive a bye. Temple can clinch a bye with a win on Sunday against VCU and a loss by Butler.
NOTES: The Bulldogs had been ranked for 11 of 17 polls this season prior to Monday. The game is televised on NBC Sports Network. Stevens on the team being under .500 in its last five games at 2-3 to raise questions about NCAA tournament seeding: Over the big picture, our guys have done a good job in and out of conference. UMass is playing without key guard Jesse Morgan, who was lost for the season due to a serious knee injury. Morgan averaged 13.4 points in 14 games. Today marks the 85th anniversary of Butler’s first game in Hinkle Fieldhouse. On March 7, 1928, the Bulldogs, coached by Tony Hinkle in what was then called Butler Fieldhouse, defeated Notre Dame 21-13 to christen the new building.
