Game Thread: Butler vs DePaul (12/29)

Thoughts and observations about the game after rewatching

1. Golden fouled out in only 18 minutes and he did do a couple of dirty fouls other than the hook which honestly surprised me. One was shoving Johnson hard out-of-bounds

2, When AT was out Taylor guarded Freeman- Liberty and did a great job. Taylor has to be one of the best freshmen in the BE. He is solid to good on both ends.

3. Simas is going to be one of Butler’s all time greats. His court presence, vision and ability to shield off his defender is excellent. Good rebounder and confident. He is definitely BE material. Accept it folks.

4. We rarely used the pick and roll offense. Movement was good as was passing.

5. The last 5:22 of the game was played with AT, Harris and Taylor for the full 5:22. DJ played approximately 3:20 minutes, David 2 minutes, Nze 2 minutes and Simas around 3 minutes. Yes we struggled to close out the game but lord we were doing it with 4 underclassmen including three freshmen playing nearly 17 of the 26 available minutes. And they did it without losing composure. That and their performance against Oklahoma should be applauded. We have two freshmen and a sophomore that I’d take any day of the week to build a team.

 

You’re right; that one he should have just flushed it.


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All great points, especially about Taylor. His ability to glide to the basket, use his off hand, and his D. He is going to be special.


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Rewatched it tonight after being there last night. That 3 second call was one of the worst calls I have ever seen. And the foul on Harris was definitely a flop. One of the worst officiated game I have seen.


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I'd be happy with anything that shows intensity. And fight. This showed both. Dude was Fing with Golden two times down the court in a row...and if one of my seniors decides to take matters into his own hands? All the better.

 

Well at least you didn't write your reply in that double secret college basketball "coach language" that you say exists that none of us lowly fans would understand. Thank you for that. Why do you find the need to reply to EVERY one of my posts in some lame attempt to ALWAYS discredit my comments? Did I hit a little nerve with you? Seriously, and I've told you this many, many times, you need a to get a life. You have no feel for or any serious knowledge of the game, although you believe that you are some kind of basketball savant. You're laughable. No kidding. You obviously had to go back and watch and pause and watch and pause again the last couple of possessions to write your reply. Sick dude. That fact that you believe that handing the ball to Harris in that situation for some one on one crap instead of a designed play to go to the bucket illustrates that point. Not saying at all that Harris shouldn't be the one to take the shot. But one on one? Lazy coaching by Jordan, if you want to call it that. Of course, you don't get it. Harris is the leading scorer. Effective shot creator???? Don't think so. More in the flow type player. Which is fine. Hell, Thompson is more of a creator of shots, but you wouldn't want him to do it in that situation either. No perimeter game. Can't hit a free throw. But can create shots. "It's hard to want a whole lot more than that." That comment pretty much sums it up dude, when you don't know what to look for or what you are seeing without running to look at some fricking numbers somewhere to make your point. No feel for the game. I sure as hell don't claim to be an expert, but I did play the game, and I know a hell of a lot more than you ever will. P.S. So why does Thompson leave his feet when he drives to the paint? This should be good.

 

I can’t tell for sure if what I saw out of Butler’s win was a case of the offense being more efficient, or just lazy defense from DePaul. If you watch the game up until Golden fouls out, it was probably the most eye pleasing performance I’ve seen from Butler all season long- The ball was moving, people were cutting, they capitalized on multiple back door cuts, and they were able to penetrate effectively most of the night; still I just can’t ignore the fact that they were doing it all against DePaul, I don’t care what their record says.

For what it’s worth - Lukas mentioned in his recap article that out of Butler’s 53 shots, 47 of them were either deemed layups or 3-point attempts - Not too bad. That probably won’t work against tall teams like Georgetown, but it’s hard to argue with that kind of formula most nights.

 

The better looking product is highly likely attributable to both better execution and the fact that DePaul was the opponent. DePaul also was comically poor on defense from an effort standpoint.

Since the Oklahoma game we’ve run a much different looking offense-far less in the way of ball screens, and when we do set ball screens they’re almost always slipped and just used to move the defense. It seems to have really helped AT. He’s been in complete control when he’s been in the game of late.

One thing to note is that while we obviously *looked* better, we didn’t actually perform any better than would have been expected from kenpom predictions.


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Wait…So are we saying then that this coaching staff “actually” made adjustments to their offense to better fit the personnel on the court? How is that possible?

All joking aside, I can live with Butler looking like this even if the shots aren’t falling. This may not alleviate the concerns I have about LaVall, but it certainly helps when the offense doesn’t look so clunky, whether it conforms to the analytics or not. I’m definitely not against analytics, Brad Stevens helped open my mind to some of it, but I guess all I’m saying is I prefer to see more lipstick applied to it to make it more palatable.

 

I think you mean BBQ sauce. If we're talking pigs.

 

Simas was named Big East Freshman of the Week for his play against DePaul. Per the Big East release:

"Lukosius was a key contributor in Butler's 63-59 win against DePaul on Dec. 29. He scored 13 pints in the first half to help the Bulldogs gain a 37-26 halftime lead and made two free throws with four seconds left to ensure a Butler victory. The 6-6 freshman from Vilnius, Lithuania, also had four rebounds."

MBB Weekly Release 1.3 (PDF) - Big East Conference

Also, David Woods had a nice piece on Simas in the IndyStar. A few tidbits for those who don't have an Indystar subscription:

• His father once played on the Soviet Union, then Lithuania, national teams and has coached pro basketball in Lithuania, Russia, Germany, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Bahrain. As a result, Simas has lived all around the world.
• Simas says he modeled his game after Luka Doncic. Says Simas: "He's not that athletic. He plays with his mind."
• Simas never visited campus and the coaches never saw him play. (I assume that means they never saw him play in person.) He was recruited over zoom. He chose Butler over BYU, Iowa State, and Texas Tech. He liked Butler because it was a smaller school and in a conference where basketball is king. The connection between Simas and Butler was made by Coach Ragland through a connection to Sacramento Kings player Neemias Queta, who played for Utah State when Ragland coached there.
• Butler had been looking for a 6-6 wing via high school recruiting or the transfer portal. They didn't get one but Lukosius fit the bill.
• Lukosius played in Germany's Bundesliga (the highest German pro league) but never signed a contract so he maintained his NCAA eligibility. Last season, he averaged 3 points in 9 minutes per game.
• And one current stat: he is second in the Big East in defensive rebound percentage.

Simas Lukosius: Get to know Butler basketball's Lithuanian freshman (indystar.com)

 

He also has a cool name to yell: LuuuuuuKoooooooo!

 

My girlfriend accidentally said Luscious when she first saw him... So it stuck around as his nickname in our household.