Seton Hall (13-9, 10-6) at Butler (7-13, 6-11), Wednesday, 2/24, 7:00 PM EST (CBSSN)

Moving on...

Another game thread.

Another look at Seton Hall as they visit Hinkle Wednesday night.

 

At least we won't have to deal with size and length...

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Opponent coming off a subpar performance? Check. Opponent desperate for a win to stay in the NCAA tournament? Check.

This is the most likely win left currently on the schedule (until they play in the Big East tourney, which their opponent is Providence right now), with around a 25% chance of victory. Last time they played, Butler shot 11-22 from 3 and they lost by 8. So... should be a fun watch!

If Nze or Thompson come back, fine, but they are very unlikely to make a difference between winning and losing in the next 3 games, so no real reason to rush them back. Hodges I only put in a slightly different category because he'll probably be on the team next year, so any experience playing with the other guys who will probably be on the team next year has some benefit.

 

Love your optimism. The defensive energy in the first half last night was very promising. But I don't know where the points come from. Butler shot poorly from the field last night, but no one on the team is a "go to" scorer like the team has had in the past.

 

Pretty quiet around these parts. I see everyone has moved into callous mode. Me too. The sooner this thing ends and we can hit a reset button the better.

Lots and lots of questions to be answered once this rodeo of dog pile is over. Take Seton Hall, no matter the points.

 

What's "funny" is that Butler's final 2 games are going to be on major networks and unfortunately for those who watch will showcase how far away Butler is from really competing with the top teams in the league.

As for this one, I guess we'll see who takes the court tomorrow, but all I'm really hoping for is effort. My first post in this thread definitely wasn't meant to strike an optimistic tone. Butler shot better from 3 than they almost assuredly will tomorrow, and they still lost by 8. Last time out Xavier went 2-19 from 3 and still won by 12. At this point Butler's players have every reason to give crap for effort because whether they do or don't, the ultimate result is still going to be the same. So if they do continue giving effort, that'll at least show their engagement and pride, even if they aren't good.

I'll be watching with mild curiosity, but I feel for the TV announcers as I have for Nick and Mark, because trying to sell these games as interesting to fans has got to be brutal. I'll be honest, when Nick does his keys to winning in the pre-game show, I'm somewhat sarcastically thinking, "did the other team show up with 5 or more healthy players? Okay, well there goes plan A."

 

The team doesn't have many opportunities left to turn the tone. Hopefully, we have some healthy bodies and "a spirit about us". Some execution and a display of ability wouldn't hurt, either.

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+7.5

 

Seton Hall tends to play to the level of their competition; their games against DePaul (W, W), Marquette (W, W), and Georgetown (W, L) were about as competitive as their games against Creighton (one close loss, one blowout loss early in the year) and Villanova (both close losses). That also includes a single-digit win at home over Butler. I don't expect Butler to win, but I wouldn't be surprised if we cover 7.5.

Unfortunately, despite their occasional offensive struggles, they've shown they can win an ugly rockfight and Butler has no answer for Mamu.

 

Is there even a game tonight?

 

Do we even care? That seems to be more relevant mi amigo.

 

As hard as it has been to watch, we, as a fan base, have to stay engaged and supportive. This is as important as anything in fending off the feared future irrelevance. You can't be irrelevant if people are passionate and invested in you.

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I care. And I will be watching. I saw a lot of positives in the last game against X. Hoping to see more of that tonight.

 

Other than seemingly playing with a little more energy than normal for this team...what positives did you see? Don't let a good effort blind the reality of horrid shooting, turnovers and another double digit loss.

Also, the defensive effort "seemed" good because Xavier was awful Sunday on offense. That was much more them than us. we had some ok possessions...but Sunday the only reason it was 12 and not 22 or so was because X couldn't hit a hooker coming up short that night. That game should have been 20+ easily.

But if you saw something outside of what seemed to be better energy...please by all means let me know because I am grasping for anything at this point. Literally anything.

 

Playing with more energy than normal while shooting badly is a very good thing.

Whether it was 22, 12 or a 10 point win, it doesn’t matter. It all has the same end result.

Literally the only thing we should really care about in games the rest of the season is that we play hard.


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9-12 from the foul line.

 

We got 17 offensive rebounds (40% of our misses) without our two best rebounders and actually rebounded better on both ends than we normally do with those guys.

Also you can’t just say “if they hit threes at their normal rate it would have been a 20 point loss” without noticing that we *also* didn’t hit threes at our normal percentage. In fact, we both hit exactly 4 fewer threes than one would expect based on our season shooting percentages, so that point really is not very compelling to me.


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I saw better defense and better rotation. I saw better positioning on footwork on defense to stay in front of the offensive player. I saw JMM get back quicker on hedges at the top of the key. I saw better communication on switches. I saw JMM fight for some rebounds. I saw guys diving to the floor on loose balls.

Yes, shooting was bad. Yes, there were mental mistakes. Yes, the only reason the game was as close as it was was because X shot worse than normal. But from a teaching/learning stand point, this game did have some positives.

 

It's hard because LaVall is single handily destroying the program. This isn't the same Butler basketball that most of us have come to love and cherish. The team no longer values offensive possessions, they have no quality 3 point shooters, and very few of the players play with any sort of chip on their shoulder. The bigs are so weak it's embarrassing. Yet, I'm still convinced the assistant coaching staff is the biggest embarrassment. This program won't even sniff the NCAA tournament over the next 3 years unless major changes occur with the bench coaching and the offensive game plan.

 

What about last year or 2018?


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