Butler Continues To Struggle

Valparaiso 77, Butler 71, OT
This season continues to be a struggle for Butler. Nothing has been easy at all. Last season, when Butler lost four of five, including games to Youngstown State, Valparaiso and Wright State, and got swept by UW-Milwaukee, everybody and their sister said that Butler was done and Cleveland State was the conference favorite. I stuck by Butler, taking some criticism from blog readers, but the reason was that I saw a team that just couldn't get focused for inferior opponents. After playing in the National Title game they just couldn't get excited about Youngstown State and UW-Milwaukee. But while they were struggling against those teams, they were beating Cleveland State, Florida State and Washington State. I believed that when they had to play the big games in March they'd come through, and they did.

So is this year a repeat of last year? Honestly, I don't think so. Last year's team had unquestioned talent at every position and had those good results early in the season to prove it. They just went into the doldrums in January and early February. This year's team? They haven't had a single strong result all season. The two best teams they've played (Louisville and Indiana) both beat them by 16 points. And I'm not sure I see the talent at every position. Chrishawn Hopkins and Roosevelt Jones won't be confused for Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard. And Khyle Marshall has regressed after looking so great last March. Brad Stevens is a tremendous coach, and I refuse to believe that this team won't get better as the year goes along, but it's going to be a big uphill battle.

This is a great win for a Valparaiso team that hadn't been able to break through yet this season, falling in a close game to Arizona and getting destroyed by Ohio State. They did beat Duquesne and Akron, but that doesn't match a road victory in Hinkle Fieldhouse. And with this win, Valpo has to be part of the conversation atop the Horizon League. Right now the conference is between them, Butler, Cleveland State and UW-Milwaukee (sadly, I've got to drop Detroit unless Eli Holman ever is allowed back on the team).

Valpo next plays IPFW, on Wednesday. Their next tough opponent will likely be Oakland, on December 17th. Butler, on the other hand, has a brutal schedule upcoming, without any chance to catch a breath. They will play Xavier on Wednesday, and on the road at Ball State next Saturday. After that it's Purdue, Gonzaga and Stanford in succession. If things don't turn around quickly, Butler will find themselves under .500 when they return to conference play against UW-Green Bay on December 29th.

Minnesota 55, USC 40
Just about everybody expected this Minnesota team, which wasn't even playing that well to start the season, to fall apart after losing star Trevor Mbakwe for the season. But arguably, their two games so far without Mbakwe have been their two best of the season. Rodney Williams has stepped up in Mbakwe's role (averaging 13 points and 8.5 rebounds in these two games). Meanwhile, UC-Davis transfer Julian Welch has emerged as a quality perimeter scorer, putting up double-digit points in his last five games.

That said, let's chill out before we all jump on the Minnesota bandwagon. The team may be better than we thought, but there's no way that the Mbakwe injury doesn't have a big effect on them going forward. And while these past two games have been their two best of the season, they haven't been that good. USC stinks, and Minnesota's other win was a three-pointer at home over a Virginia Tech team that looks NIT-worthy. Let's see how they look in the early part of Big Ten play, when they start playing teams in their own weight class. Until then, they've got a few cupcakes lined up, beginning with Appalachian State on Tuesday.

USC is now 4-5, with their best win coming over South Carolina, and with a bad loss to Cal Poly. The best thing going for them is that Utah is so awful that USC will look pretty good in comparison. Their next game will be next Saturday against New Mexico.

Richmond 70, Wake Forest 62
I thought this game was over early. Richmond took an early double-digit lead that they pushed out to 22 points halfway through the second half. But they went through a long cold stretch, scored only two points in nearly five minutes of play that featured four turnovers. Wake Forest actually got the deficit within five points in the final minute. It was third straight feisty, encouraging performance from a Wake Forest team that is short on talent, but which is at least improving and exerting effort.

Richmond got a breakout performance from true freshman Kendall Anthony (21 points on 6-for-11 shooting). Down the stretch it was Anthony and Cedrick Lindsay that were making all of the plays on offense and leading Richmond to victory. Richmond now moves to a very quiet 6-2. It's quiet because they haven't really beaten anybody (Rutgers and Wake Forest have been their two best wins), and they've got a mediocre loss to Davidson. Their schedule gets tougher over the next couple of weeks, so we'll soon get a better idea of where they are. It begins with a road game at VCU next Saturday, followed by a home game against Iona.

Wake Forest falls to 5-3. They'll play at High Point on Wednesday, and then at Seton Hall next Saturday. That will be their final quality opponent before beginning ACC play on January 7th against Virginia Tech.