Gut Punched: Butler falls to Villanova


Butler played really well, perhaps even their best game of the year, but it wasn’t enough to overcome 31 points from Darrun Hilliard, 12 threes from Villanova and giving up a 77.5% EFG% to the Wildcats in the 2nd half. It’s the second year in a row that the Bulldogs have fallen to the Wildcats after Villanova escaped Hinkle with a 76-73 win on New Year’s Eve last season. What Butler must avoid now is letting this difficult loss turn into what last year’s Villanova loss did, and while this year’s group has responded really well to heartbreaking losses to Georgetown and Providence, neither of those losses were coupled with the possibility of one of their starters missing time due to an injury. This will be enough of a story on its own that I won’t get into it too much now, but while the loss is obviously disappointing, this may have the biggest long-term impact on Butler’s season. Now, onto the positives and negatives from last night’s game, starting with the positives:

1. Barlow came up big – Eamonn Brennan may have said it best last night:


The progress this young man has made from his freshman year at Butler until now is flat out incredible. While Hilliard was able to go off for a career high on the Senior guard, Barlow did his best to keep Butler in the game, hitting 4 threes of his own and scoring 19 points of his own, which tied a career high he set for himself last year at DePaul. Keep in mind this was a kid who didn’t even score in double figures for Butler until Bucknell during the NCAA tournament two seasons ago. He continues to prove that replacing this former walk-on is going to be really difficult, even for a former McDonald’s All-American.

2. Chrabascz’s Toughness – I don’t think anyone thought going into last night that Andrew Chrabascz was soft, but if last night didn’t convince you that this kid, like many on Butler’s team is as tough as nails, I’ve got nothing for you. After hurting his shooting hand in a loose ball scramble in the second half and getting taken back to the locker room to get it examined and wrapped, Chrabascz came back in the game and hit two huge free throws and a tough shot in the lane with his left hand, along with continuing to defend the physical bigs of Daniel Ochefu and JayVaughn Pinkston. “He gave us a whale of a game under difficult circumstances, and hopefully he’ll be healthy enough to continue to help us.” Holtmann stated after the game. “This game says a lot about his toughness.”

3. Kelan Martin’s Contributions – This wasn’t specifically brought up during the press conference, but Kelan Martin gave Butler the lift they really needed throughout the game on offense, especially while Jones struggled to find the bottom of the net for most of the night. Martin scored in double figures for only the second time since conference play began, and depending on the severity of Chrabascz’s injury, the Bulldogs may need for him to continue to do that going forward. He also pulled down 4 rebounds in his 13 minutes and was very active defensively. This was about the most locked in that I’d seen Martin in awhile, and hopefully that can continue to occur.

4. Butler’s free throw shooting – While Kam Woods missed a couple of opportunities down the stretch that really could have helped out the Dawgs, this has really started to turn into a strength for Butler in the last several games. In fact since the Seton Hall game that Butler really struggled from the foul line, Butler has shot at least 70% from the stripe as a team, which they’ll definitely need to continue to do if they want to get into the tournament, and possibly make some noise once they’re there.

Photo Credit: Matt Detrich/The Star

Photo Credit: Matt Detrich/The Star

5. The atmosphere – If you were at the game last night, give yourself a hand, because you were awesome. Butler doesn’t get that kind of atmosphere as often as it should, but I guess that’s what makes games like last night so special. You could tell the guys were jacked early on as well, because they just couldn’t find the range with all of the excitement surrounding this game, but it was awesome once they did find it. As Holtmann stated, hopefully Butler’s two remaining home games can have the same kind of involvement from the crowd.

Now, onto the negatives, and despite the loss, there’s really only one related to Butler last night:

1. Butler’s second half defense – First, let me state that Villanova is a really, really hard team to defend because they have so many guys that can burn you, and frankly, with a defense that relies so much on rotations and help, a team that can pass like Villanova can is a really bad matchup for Butler. But after holding Villanova to just 36.7% shooting, which really kept Butler in the game in the first half, Villanova exploded in the second half, and unfortunately, even with Butler playing as well as they did offensively in the 2nd half, it wasn’t enough to overcome Villanova’s second half performance.

The key now for Butler is to quickly regroup and move on to Creighton, which was a team that Butler really struggled with at Hinkle and has won 2 of its last 3 at home. Butler is going to need to continue to beat the teams lower in the standings if they want to stay in the hunt for an all-important bye in the Big East tourney, as the Dawgs are currently 0-4 in league play against the teams at the top (Villanova, Georgetown, Providence), so they definitely can’t afford a slip up in Omaha on Monday.

So what did you think about the game? Let us know in the comments section and message board. I will have the press conference posted here as soon as it’s online.

Go Dawgs.

Featured Photo Credit: Matt Detrich/The Star

The thread view count is

Leave a Reply