Butler Bulldogs vs. Illinois Fighting Illini - 11/21 - 10:00 PM

I see Fromm playing a lot more minutes bringing both energy and another scoring option. Over the next couple of weeks the coaches will be able to work on getting Dunham open more and finding more offensive options. Marshall has been exceptional on both ends of the floor. He just ran out of gas the last game. Clarke is still getting comfortable at the PG position while often being shadowed by a second defender. His A/T ratio will improve. Dunham looks like a good ball handler and passer and sees the floor well. Thus the five I see that will ultimately come together is Fromm, Jones, Dunham, Clarke and Marshall.

 

I agree with all the comments that it was a very good tourney overall and the team collectively and the players individually developed since the Xavier game. One observation and one question.

I was impressed with Dunham's passing abilities. He has a knack for getting the ball into the bigs who are posting up. I think the guards in general are having difficulty doing this on a consistent basis. Even at times when Smith or Marshall seem to be in the right spot and are open, the gaurds (including Rotnei) just don't seem to be able to create the right angle to get the ball inside. Dunham seems to be able to do that well--a pleasant surprise to me on top of the great shooting (which we knew we were getting).

QUESTION: Given the difficulty that the guards are having in handling pressure out high, should Butler stop setting the high ball screens? It seems to be exacerbating the problem of the pressure/double teams and makes it even harder for the guards to create or get the ball inside.

 

I noticed the same thing on the high ball screens. Dunham can see over most players while Clarke and Jackson might not.

 

Butler sets "Mock" high ball screens. If you watch.....the guards stay about 2 feet away from the screener.......giving both defenders the ability to double team the ball handler. Because of the inability to set effective screens, even the guards without the ball are not getting open for easy shots. We dribble til there is a little bit of seperation and heave up shots. This has been happening for the last few years.

If you watched Illinois....they were forcing the defender to run into the screen, which freed up the ball handler and or open up the man off the ball to get a great looking shot. The former Butler coaches are running our offense better than we do. Until Butler gets back to the fundamentals of screens........we won't be able to take advantage of our great shooters.

At the airport, after the tournament......Jay Bilas was talking about some of our problems on offense along with the terrible free throw shooting from Jones. I didnt have the heart to tell Bilas that Jones actually fixed the problem with falling backwards on his free throw....because there are sooooo many other issues with his form.