12/3/11, 1:00pm: Butler Game Thread

[VU75]

back on

[valpotx]

Yes sir, 77-71 win at Hinkle in OT!  Loved the silence at the arena that last minute 

[rlh]

This was a huge win...eventhough they aren't what they have been, they are still Butler and we beat them at Hinkle.....I love the agressiveness of this team, even when down they took it to them

[rink]

Awesome win.  Was getting frustrated with the sloppy play as things were slipping away in the second half, but they looked good fighting back to basically win it in regulation.  Justice was served with the overtime win to make it official.

In Bryce we trust...!!

[cmack]

Definitely a huge win.  Even if there are still tougher teams ahead to beat, Butler had become the new Oral Roberts.  This goes a long way in sending the message that we are not the easy W that we used to be for the Bulldogs.  I didn't get to see much of the game except for the end of regulation and overtime, but Richie was a monster.

[govalpogo]

I don't think I'm going to be able to be a basketball fan when I get older...these kind of games may lead to an eventual heart attack!  Add another one to the Valpo/Butler classic reel.  What an exciting game!  And now a winning streak for Valpo in the series!  I saw a sign in the student section that said "We are NOT rivals" maybe they will start to change that thinking...

[mj]

Great win for the guys today. I'm still concerned about the sluggish starts to the 2nd half, but we found a way to overcome that. It will be nice to look at a 1-0 conference record in the standings for a month!

[RS]

great gutsy win. Bryce certainly has a fresh look on the game. Even though it didn't work that full court pass with a 1 point lead to Bogan with 30 seconds left to play in regulation shows the type of strategy Bryce is willing to try. Hats off to Edwards for maintaining a presence in the middle after we lost Kevin fouled out.

[vu72]

Great win indeed.  The "we are not rivals" kinda reminds me of Green Bay football fans who say they aren't rivals with the Vikings!  Only way to change that one fans opinion is to keep winning.  Two in a row!!

What a great effort by both teams and no doubt Butler will be a force this year.  Lots of talent, just not firing on all cylinders quite yet.  Funny how Smith basicly disappeared.

Ryan may end up being one of the best rebounders of all time for Valpo.  I'll have to check some stats to see how he stands at the moment.  Clearly showing all conference play.

Who's next?  Bring 'em on!!

[vu84v2]

Great win...and you can be encouraged since we know this team can get better.  Really nice game for Buggs and Edwards came up huge.  It was like a light went on and Edwards suddenly figured out inside footwork.  Great ball movement in the second half too.

[valpopal]

I nearly had the score with my 74-71 Valpo prediction. I also had predicted before the season started that Edwards would be a difference in games like this and Buggs would be much better at scoring, including free throws, this season; but the stat nobody could have predicted in this game is Buggs from the free throw line 3-4, Harris from the free throw line 1-4!

[vu72]

Oh my gosh.  You have to go over the the Butler board for some good laughs.  If you think we have fans that are hard on the guys wait till you read their crap.

"Smith and Stigall are terrible"  "Smith is at best a D2 player"   "We stink"  etc etc etc and I mean ten or twelve not two or three.  Oh and "we lost to a not very good Valpo team"  Hmmm, we'll see...

[zvillehaze]

Oh my gosh.  You have to go over the the Butler board for some good laughs.  If you think we have fans that are hard on the guys wait till you read their crap.

"Smith and Stigall are terrible"  "Smith is at best a D2 player"   "We stink"  etc etc etc and I mean ten or twelve not two or three.  Oh and "we lost to a not very good Valpo team"  Hmmm, we'll see...

Yep ... lots of mature comments over there right now from people who've never donned a uniform past 5th grade CYO ball.  Enjoy.

Great game to watch and congrats to Valpo on the win.  I'm impressed with your play so far this year.  I'm also not panicking with Butler ...they're playing a bunch of young guys who are improving, but not there yet.

[valporun]

I don't have as deep criticism of today's game as I did of the Ohio St. game because I am at my brother's house watching my nephew, so I was paying attention to him a lot more than this game.
I'm happy with the fight we showed, especially after taking another 4 minutes to open the second half of getting warmed up again. I don't understand why we come out of the locker room in the second half so freaking cold? I mean it does make the guys have to work more on defense to keep the score within reach, but still we need to get some points on the board in the first 4 minutes of the second half, otherwise we're all going to have coronaries waiting for the first media timeout to happen, so the guys get out of their shells.

koala, from the stats I saw, Ryan had a much better game. We just need more control from Buggs and Van Wijk when it comes to fouls. I see they both need to be aggressive on defense, but to have three fouls each before halftime can be a problem. I don't know what kind of discipline each could use, but something needs to be done, especially to keep Kevin in the game at the end.

Anyone have any idea why Vucic wasn't used in this game?

[FWalum]

I don't believe I ever said I don't care who wins or loses.....I just think it should be kept in perspective.  Being embarassed by a teams play just doesn't fit with me....sorry.....I want Valpo to win as much, and probably more than most, but I try to remember it's not the be all and end all.  In my case, I'm fighting cancer right now, and it certainly puts some things in perspective as to what's really important and what's not.  Doesn't mean I don't root just as hard for the Crusaders, Boilermakers and Bears.....

That makes two of us.  I'm almost done with chemo and you can get through it too.  Was just kidding you.  Hope you are feeling OK.

Very sorry to hear it.  Best wishes to both of you.

Ditto.  Hang in there guys.

rlh - I have noticed that you have not been posting much lately, and now I know why.  I wish you and '72 my very best for a speedy, full recovery!

God's blessings and healing rlh and '72, from a forum old timer.  rlh, I'm guessing I won't be seeing you in Fort Wayne at the IPFW game?

[cmack]

Anyone have any idea why Vucic wasn't used in this game?

Just a guess here, but I would figure that Vucic will be used to hold down the bench whenever possible during the Horizon season.  He is simply too much of a liability on both ends.  As for the IPFW game, let him play.  Edwards will hopefully continue to carry the load inside when Van Wijk is out.

[rlh]

God's blessings and healing rlh and '72, from a forum old timer.  rlh, I'm guessing I won't be seeing you in Fort Wayne at the IPFW game?

I hope I'm there, but I would be surprised if I can make it.  This week will tell me a lot as to my future treatment

[mp91]

Check out our post game analysis:

http://www.beyond-the-arc.com/

[valpo04]

From the NWI Times: 

Richie Edwards scored 18 points in 23 minutes including a fadeaway jumper with less than two minutes remaining that gave Valparaiso a 73-69 lead in overtime. Edwards was forced into action mainly because Kevin Van Wijk fouled out in just 25 minutes.

"I felt like I had a good flow early in the game and I was confident to do what I do," Edwards said. "I just wanted to stay consistent and try to help the guys win the game."

Valparaiso's victory represented the first road win at Hinkle Fieldhouse since 1988 and the first time the Bulldogs have lost their conference opener since 2001-02.

Erik Buggs gave the Crusaders some breathing room in the overtime period by knocking down three free throws, something he is notoriously poor at doing. The junior guard was more aggressive than usual in attacking the basket and his performance left Butler coach Brad Stevens shaking his head at the end of the game.

"Buggs is a good player and he's one of the reasons they were really good last year," Stevens said. "Valpo really showed their age and maturity possession by possession and Buggs was a big reason for that."

"The whole team really fought to the end and there were times when Butler went on runs that we could've folded," Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew said. "Our guys were able to respond and I'm looking forward to watching the tape and seeing all the twists and turns of this one."

[valpotx]

I have to admit that the tears flowing on the Butler board taste very good.  Add some cheese with their 'whine' and my weekend is made 

[vu72]

I really think Vucic didn't play was because of matchup problems.  Other than Smith Butler isn't very big or slow.  Richie just matched up better against a guy like Marshall.  Against bigger, slower guys I think he will see action as he played well against OSU.

It is just some indication of the coaching quality we have.  Putting the right guy in the right situation.  Vucic may not see much Horizon League action because for the most part the League is guard oriented and that is why we will need Boggs to make a deep run.  We'll see.

And FWAlum, thanks for the kind words and good wishes.  I should have had my last chemo last Friday but was too sick (unrelated) to do it, so next Friday it is.  My major surgery was on June 1 so getting it all over with before Christmas is a gift I hadn't thought about!
All indications are that  we beat it but a CT scan on the 29th will confirm, God willing.  Thanks again to all for your well wishes.

[sectionee]

Here is our game wrap up.  So glad we made the trip down!

http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/game-wrap-up-victory-at-hinkle.html

[FWalum]

God's blessings and healing rlh and '72, from a forum old timer.  rlh, I'm guessing I won't be seeing you in Fort Wayne at the IPFW game?

I hope I'm there, but I would be surprised if I can make it.  This week will tell me a lot as to my future treatment

I'll be looking for you. I have a good friend fighting the same battle. He just got some very good news this week, I hope you can tell me the same thing on Wednesday.

[StlVUFan]

First of all, a win is a win, and especially at that place in front of that crowd.

I loved the resilience in both halves, both of which started out regrettably.  I think the win was aided and abetted by inconsistent play, unforced turnovers, missed FTs, and missed layups by Butler, but it still required effort on our part to take advantage of all that.  Late in the 2nd half started to have a familiar pattern to it when Butler started to pull away 58-51, but before long we climbed back in.

It was certainly an ugly looking game at times with ragged play on both sides and questionable officiating that I suspect evened out so that neither side could complain about the game being compromised by it.

Butler missed a lot of FTs and a lot of layups or we might be singing a different tune, but I'm not worried about trying to ascribe that to them having an off game or us outplaying them.  As I told TD as we left Hinkle, I consider that to be ambiguous.  I'm comfortable with saying it's a little of both.

I thought Chase Stigall was the most dangerous Bulldog on the court today and was thankful he missed that 3 late in the OT.

Memo to Matt Kenney: I love ya, guy, but when you take the inbound pass with 1 second on the clock, DON'T DRIBBLE, JUST SHOOT!!!  Especially when your dribble really doesn't take you any closer to the basket. 

Is Andrew Smeathers the rock start this year?  When he came in and immediately drained a 3, I thought the roof was gonna blow off the place.

I was interested to note that the Bulldogs were led in scoring by Nored.  A Butler fan will have to judge whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.  I can only say that it seems like an unusual thing.

The lower 2/3rds were pretty full.  Only the nosebleeds were fairly sparse.  An excellent crowd, I would say.

I despise speed-eating contests at athletic events, mainly because ... I despise speed-eating contests period.  Celebrating unhealthy behavior just rubs me the wrong way, especially at an athletic event.  This applies to the ARC, to Busch Stadium, and I'm sure to a lot of other places as well.

We joined a very select fraternity today that as far as I can remember includes only Loyola and Milwaukee -- teams that have beaten Butler at Hinkle over the last 3 or 4 years.  I know they were 8-1 at home last year and 9-0 the year before, and the only other loss I can remember in that time period is a close loss to Loyola.

I would not be at all surprised if Butler returns the favor at the ARC in February.  Both teams have plenty of areas needing improvement in the aftermath of today's game, in my opinion.

As for Bryce, I'm absolutely sold.  He must be doing a pretty good job, possibly better than his Dad lately, which is saying something.

[IrishDawg]

Congrats guys on the win.

Butler has so much improving to do on both ends of the floor, and will likely be 4-9 or 5-8 by the time the conference schedule rolls back around, that I guess it's a positive that they've really got nowhere to go but up.  Only other positive from my end of things is the offensive rebounding and that despite the fact they shot 34% from the field and 58% from the FT line (compared to Valpo's 53% and 67%), they still had a chance to win.  Well, I guess that and once they get some guys with basketball skills to mix in with their athletes in the Freshmen and Sophomore classes, they will presumably be better.

Again, congrats.