Wow. Butler beat UNC in Hawaii and led by more than 20 late in the 2nd half.
I was just thinking after the Xavier game that Butler might be off quite a bit again.
They even toyed with them down the stretch before slamming the door. Talk about a complete role reversal.
Forgive me, Butler haters, but I absolutely love seeing a team like UNC get humiliated any time. I relish all such opportunities.
Yep, that was a fun game to watch. Butler was up 29 midway through the second half. Kicked the tar out of North Carolina and looked like the better team doing it. It was not a fluke or one time thing. What impressed me was not the fact that they shot the ball pretty well (they did), but they took it to UNC on the boards and pretty much just beat them up in doing so. Even Andrew Smith was physical. His stats will show only 2 reb and 1 assist, but he made so many high IQ basketball plays it really allowed Butler to thrive on offense and defense as well. Those who saw the game will likely agree. Rebounds tipped to teamates who could better gather the ball, being the outlet on UNC's inbound pressure and coming to the ball, not just standing there and trying to outjump the opponent. Butlers defensive rotations were great most of the time. I also liked how they used Roosevelt Jones as a distributor vs. Clarke. Clarke is their primary ball handler and they struggled with that at times, but Clarke isn't much of a facilitator and Jones allowed both Dunham and Rotnei space to get open for good looks from 3. All told, very impressed.
I am continually amazed at Butler's performance on big stages. When they play us, they are merely good, but when they play top teams, they are giant-killers. I'm not sure why that is, nor why Valpo does not have that ability. Obviously, confidence is part of the equation...but not all of it. Maybe the new guys in 2013-2014 will develop that killer instinct, although we could use another strong post player to accompany the Valpo Fab 5.