www.miamicountylife.com/articles/2008/02/29/sports/sports02.txtRandom thoughts from the Wright State vs Butler basketball game
By TOM DAVIS
Tribune Managing Editor
Friday, February 29, 2008
* Hinkle Fieldhouse provided a tremendous atmosphere for a great college basketball game on Thursday. A pair of 20-win teams going at it hard, but clean. Skilled, athletic, team-oriented players. Anyone that buys a ticket to a Pacer game as opposed to a Butler game is an idiot.
* I am extremely proud to be an alumnus of Butler University. The campus is beautiful, the buildings are marvelous, the basketball team is fantastic, the school is a blast (its five minutes from Broad Ripple!), basically everything that it wasn't when I attended there in the late 1980s. Back then, the budgets were minimal, the athletic department was Division I in name only (considering the facilities and philosophy), and Hinkle Fieldhouse was a dump. It was historic, but it was a dump. It had multi-colored bleachers, painted windows, etc. Now it is beautiful. People wonder why players such as Matt Howard (Connersville) or Garret Butcher (Edgewood HS) turn down IU and Purdue to go to Butler, just visit the campus on gameday, take into consideration that you will win 20 games a year, and then you'll realize why.
* Speaking of Howard, Purdue assistant coach Rick Ray told me that when Howard committed to Butler he knew that Howard would be a "difference maker. You can put down four league titles right there." So far he is prophetic, as Howard has one title under his belt. Former University of Indianapolis head coach Todd Sturgeon said after the game that Howard would be the best player in the league his junior year. He is right. But I also think that Howard will be the best player in the league his sophomore year. The freshman post man is deceptively strong, has great hands and gets to everything. He made a tremendous play in the second half as he out-fought a pair of Raider players for a rebound and while falling out of bounds got the ball to a teammate to save the possession. Then with the game in the balance in the final minute, who had the key tip-in to kill Wright State's chances? Howard. The kid is great.
* The Raiders' best player is Vaughn Duggins, a guard from Pendleton who chose WSU over Butler. How good would Butler be with him?
* The Raiders biggest weakness is their lack of post scoring. They have very good, athletic guards, but they have no one to throw the ball into and either get a bucket or at least draw a double team to help the perimeter players.
* You can't guard everyone. That is what WSU found out, leaving open the least Bulldog player to kill you, Julian Betko. But that is exactly what Betko did. The senior hit four three's in the first game against WSU in December and topped that on Thursday with five. But what are you supposed to do? Leave Howard, A.J. Graves, Mike Green, or Pete Campbell?
* By the way, after starting his collegiate career on the bench at IPFW playing (or not playing) in front a few hundred fans on losing teams, has anyone finished their career on a higher note than Campbell? I couldn't be happier for the kid, who happens to share a pair of alma maters with me (Yorktown High)!
* To really advance far in the NCAA Tourney, Butler is going to have to rebound better, keep shooting well (one "off night" and they are toast) and keep Howard out of foul trouble. I think they could get to the "Sweet 16," but not much further. Meanwhile, WSU is NIT bound.
* I bet WSU coach Brad Brownell, who at the time was at UNC-Wilmington, would not have recommended Green to Butler if he knew that he was going to have to face him eventually.
* People have asked if Butler is going to be any good next year after losing five seniors and the answer is yes. First of all, put Howard out there with five cadavers and you would be competitive. But aside from Howard, players such as Zach Hahn, Shawn Vanzant, Willie Veasley, and Avery Jukes, not too mention Butcher and Gordon Hayward (Brownsburg HS) will all produce and Butler will compete for a league title next year. They may not win it, but they'll be in the race.
* The WSU head coach has been rumored (not by anyone with an official say so) to be a candidate at IU, but not one question was asked about the rumors at the post-game press conference. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star alluded to the rumors in its preview story on Thursday. Brownell would be tremendous at IU in every conceivable fashion.
* Speaking of the Indianapolis Star, I enjoy columnist Bob Kravit's writings, but he showed his ignorance of the college basketball world by writing that IU should go hard after Bruce Pearl. Ask anyone in the business if IU should do that and you'll receive a hearty laugh. One former coach told me that it would be "mind-boggling" if IU did that. Pearl has had players at both the University of Southern Indiana and Tennessee arrested for drugs, and his former assistant coach (Stan Gouard, who is now at Indiana State) referred to him as "a cheater" in Sports Illustrated last year. Yeah, that's who should replace Kelvin Sampson. Good idea Kravitz.