Bulldogs prep for postseason with worthy Senior Night showcase
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
INDIANAPOLIS – If this is what the rest of March is going to be like, then ready the oxygen, please.
Butler’s 67-62 win over Xavier had a little bit of everything, as the battle between the Musketeers’ isolation sets and Butler’s perimeter prowess played to a draw for 39 ½ minutes before Isaiah Philmore’s last-gasp hook caromed off the rim and into the arms of Butler’s Kameron Woods.
For basketball fans on both sides of a Midwestern rivalry, this one was a classic – the type of battle where even winning coach Brad Stevens admitted, That was a great college basketball game. Both teams played really hard. We were lucky at the end.
The thrills started right away: The two sides played perhaps the most defensive half of the Atlantic 10 season, exchanging body blows in a period that ended 26-25 Butler.
It featured the supposedly-road-weak Musketeers speeding the Bulldogs up in the opening 7:32 to take a 10-8 lead, only to be immediately followed by a five-point explosion from the suddenly confident Woods that put Butler in the driver’s seat. Led by Woods, the Bulldogs scored 12 points in a stretch of less than four minutes – a 120-point pace for a full game – to showcase their quick-blitz capacities.
Led by the brilliant play of shooting guard Semaj Christon, Xavier would continue to make runs throughout the evening. The Musketeers piled up 12 ties and 10 lead changes on the night, making coach Chris Mack’s postgame assertion that Either team could have won seem imminently plausible.
Andrew Smith was the surprise winner of the grueling duel at center between him and Travis Taylor, who had been drawing buzz after a monstrous 19-point, 19-rebound outing in Wednesday night’s win over Saint Louis. He scored seven points and shot 3 for 9, topping Taylor (six points, 3-of-13) in both categories. More importantly, he held his own against Taylor during the numerous post-ups that the Musketeers ran for him, especially during the final five minutes when the Musketeers got bogged down in low-block isolations for Taylor.
He’s become one of the great centers in the history of Butler, said Stevens of Smith, who moved into sole possession of fifth place on the school’s all-time games-played list in his final home game.
Not that senior transfer Rotnei Clarke was any less important. After a first half in which he seemed to be pressing, finishing with four points and no 3-pointers, he warmed up fast in the second. Clarke scored 17 points in the half without committing a turnover, putting the Bulldogs up 64-60 with his final points at the 18-second mark.
But ultimately, this regular season finale came down to the emotions and energy of Butler trumping the size of Xavier. For much of Saturday night’s game there was an almost unheard of lineup situation in which the Musketeers played with three interior players while the Bulldogs used just two against them.
Surprisingly, the outcome was that the Bulldogs played even on the glass, with each team grabbing an identical 30 boards, including six for both sides on the offensive glass. Smith, Woods, Roosevelt Jones and Alex Barlow led the way with five apiece, helping uphold Butler’s pride in a battle of rebounding giants. Butler entered the day having outrebounded five straight opponents and 26 of 30 on the season. Butler led the A-10 and was ninth nationally in rebounding margin (+7.9). Xavier arrived second in the conference (+5.2) and had won the rebounding battle in 21 of their 29 games.
Our kids fought tooth and nail, Mack said. Nothing like bringing your kids to Hinkle. Two very good programs.
Philmore, who earned the start as an oversized small forward, responded with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Mack was especially proud of the man in goggles.
Isaiah played extremely well, Mack said. He matched Butler’s physicality, which is saying a lot.
But the nice thing about a game like this is the memory it created for Butler’s four seniors. Which means tonight was as much about the result and big-picture appreciation as it was about the tug-of-war competition. All four guys – Smith, Clarke, Chase Stigall and Emerson Kampen – will have plenty to be proud of when they look back upon this day and their careers.
And there are almost too many points of praise to mention:
– Smith, Stigall and Kampen are 107-37 in their time at Butler. That’s the fourth-most wins of any senior class in school history. These guys have led the way in everything they’ve done, said Stevens, who beamed with pride. They’ve done it against the hardest schedule we’ve ever had.
– Smith is an academic All-American, giving Butler such a player for a seventh straight season. As quickly and thoroughly as he learned concepts in the classroom, the Indianapolis product said becoming a successful Bulldog basketball player required mental gymnastics. It takes a while to get used to the system, said Smith, thinking back to his freshman season. I had a lot of great help. Matt Howard. Avery Jukes as well.
– Kampen chose Butler even though the school offered him less playing time than other available opportunities. I wanted to go to a place that has tradition, he said. I wanted to be part of a family.
– Stigall overcame a wrist injury and shooting struggles to participate in a national championship game as a sophomore. In any sport, you have highs and lows, he said. You’ve got to be able to turn it around and have a short memory. The role I played is I’m trying to get guys ready to go or trying to be vocal. I’m not a vocal leader. So I tried to do as much as I can with my actions.
– In his first and only season with Butler, Clarke arrived from Arkansas and became the face of the program. He has been Butler’s leading scorer, or tied for the team lead, in 20 of the 27 full games in which he has played. Extremely special, Clarke said. Coming here was the best decision I could’ve possibly made. It’s fun to end like this.
Of course, the real games are just beginning. When Stevens meets with his team this week and examines the film, all improvement will be geared toward success in the A-10 tournament and, presumably, the NCAA’s round of 64.
Kind of used the (first) Xavier game (a 62-47 loss) as a measuring stick from November until now, said Stevens, while Smith offered that, We have the opportunity to play as long as we want to as long as we play hard.
Hold on tight, because if the next few weeks are anything like Saturday, this finish will wear out the edges of many a seat cushion.
