Butler Basketball

Butler Looks To Hold Off Mtsu, Return To Sweet 16

... 4 seed Butler (24-18) vs. No. 12 seed Middle Tennessee (31-4). Second round, South Region; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 7:10 p.m. EDT. BOTTOM LINE: Butler is looking for its first trip to the Sweet 16 since wrapping up back-to-back runs to the national title game in 2011. But the Bulldogs are no longer a mid-major darling, a title that now belongs to Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders could take a huge step forward in their quest for national respect by beating Butler. KEEP IT MOVING: Middle Tennessee threw Minnesota off in the first round with a 1-3-1 zone look with pressure. Butler coach Chris Holtmann said spacing and decision-making will be important when the Blue Raiders go to that defensive wrinkle. Butler guard Tyler Lewis, coming off an eight-assist game in the first round against Winthrop, led the Big East with a ...

This Is March, And This Is How Butler Wins

... TODAY Sports). 536 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENTEMAILMORE. MILWAUKEE – Kamar Baldwin didn’t score much. Seven points, that’s all. There’s a way to get ESPN’s attention, and that’s not it. All Kamar Baldwin did was help win this game. Tyler Lewis didn’t score much, either. Nine points. Not bad, two more than Baldwin, but nothing that jumps off the stat sheet. Tyler Lewis helped win the game, too. That’s the beauty of this Butler basketball team. It has a million ways to win, all of them unselfish, and we saw two of them on Thursday in the fourth-seeded Bulldogs’ 76-64 victory against No. 13 Winthrop in their NCAA tournament opener. • MORE BUTLER: Bulldogs advance, as usual. Truth is, we saw more than two ways. We saw Memphis transfer Avery Woodson play in his first career NCAA tournament game and decide he’d like to stay a while, scoring all 18 of his points on 3-pointers, 15 in the first 16 minutes. We saw Tyler Wideman and Nate Fowler put a clamp on the rim. We saw Kelan Martin do what he has done since Butler’s ...

Wideman Brings Unique Character To Butler Basketball

... to take a nap, regardless of what time the game is,” Wideman said. “They tell us not to, but I need a nap or I just feel dead regardless. And then if it's a home game, I just walk across the football field listening to music. I listen to a lot of Chance the Rapper, and then any song that helps me, any song that I can like sing to.”. “It might be some kind of Beyonce or Rihanna song that just gets my vocal cords up there. I do not have a good voice, but I sing in the shower and with my headphones on with my teammates, but I don't have a good voice.". And Wideman claims he isn’t the only Bulldog singing to his own tune. “I feel like all my teammates are like that in a way, they're just very goofy and have their own personality that might people might not know about," Wideman said. Much like a beloved Disney movie, a team of unique characters unified in pursuit of a storybook ending. “Hopefully we leave behind a national championship. That would be pretty good, but if not, just the ...

Dawgs Continue First-round Dominance

... s, reaching their average, but three came late with the outcome settled. The Bulldogs pulled away on a 14-2 run directed by Lewis, who punctuated it with a lob to Tyler Wideman for a dunk. That made it 62-43 with 7:21 left and effectively ended hope of a No. 13-over-4 upset. Lewis had another assist, two driving layups and a free throw during the spree. Lewis’ assists were one off Butler’s tourney record of nine set by Mike Monserez against Louisville in 2003. Martin came up limping after a late collision. Holtmann called it a charley horse and said Martin should be ready for the next round. Holtmann laments Crean, Groce firings. Holtmann did not know Tom Crean had been fired at Indiana when he was asked about it during the postgame. He took the opportunity to criticize the firing of John Groce, who was Holtmann’s teammate at Taylor. Holtmann said Groce was “close to turning the corner” at Illinois. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Tom ...

Late Butler Star's Inspirational Message Still Resonates

... enough that nine years later it played Duke for the national championship before 71,000 at Lucas Oil Stadium. De COURCY: Joel Cornette's death rocks Butler basketball. Butler soon moved up in class to the Atlantic 10 Conference, and not long afterward to the reconstituted Big East. This season, with a 23-8 record that included a season sweep of defending national champion Villanova, the Bulldogs earned a No. 4 NCAA seed that was the highest in their history. They are still here. Cornette is not, tragically. He played professional basketball for a while after leaving Butler, became a college assistant coach and ultimately found his calling as a player agent with Mark Bartelstein’s Priority Sports. Last August, however, he died at his home in Chicago, the cause of death ruled as coronary atherosclerosis — a buildup of plaque in arteries of his heart. He was 35 years old. If you play that clip at the ...

Firing Butler Was A Tough Call, But The Correct One

... to run in place of this column, but then it didn't need to. “After 10 years, University of Florida women’s basketball coach Amanda Butler will not return next season,” read the press release posted on Florida __link__. Stricklin’s decision wasn’t surprising given Butler’s history. In 10 years at the helm of the program, Butler’s teams had a tendency to fluctuate from halfway decent to poor from season to season, and this season was one of the worst of all. The Gators finished 15-16, missing any form of postseason play. While this wasn’t the worst record achieved under Butler’s watch, it was especially disappointing given the team went 22-9 the season before. Much of the drop off can be attributed to the loss of two key players: guards Simone Westbrook and Eleanna Christinaki. Westbrook tore her ACL before the season and left the Gators with a thin bench. Christinaki, meanwhile, transferred to Maryland. The team said the reason was that she refused to accept a half-game suspension for a “violation of team culture,” with ...

Butler Snuffs Out Middle Tennessee’s Upset Bid

... of the game. Andrew Chrabascz turned the ball over on that first possession against the 1-3-1, leading to an easy run-out for the Blue Raiders. The Bulldogs didn’t turn it over again facing the 1-3-1. Instead, they handled it deftly, getting a few quick, open threes, but more often simply breaking it before getting into a halfcourt set. When the Blue Raiders went back to it after cutting the lead to five points with less than two minutes left, Chrabascz found Martin for a wide-open layup from beyond half court. Not only did they prevent the Blue Raiders from generating the number of turnovers they usually do with the look, they forced them to come out of it and play more man-to-man than they did against Minnesota. From there, the Bulldogs were able to isolate favorable matchups, resulting in Martin’s big night, as well as a 15-point game for Chrabascz. Quite simply, Butler is the better team, and played like it on ...

Butler Bulldog Banned From Ncaa Games At Milwaukee's Bradley Center

... Journal Sentinel. Buy Photo. Josie Cooks, center, the mother of Winthrop basketball player Xavier Cooks, traveled all the way from Wollongong, Australia, with her husband, Eric Cooks, left, and other son, Dominique Cooks, to see her son play against Butler in the NCAA Tournament at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee on Thursday. Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Buy Photo. Winthrop basketball player Xavier Cooks, whose family traveled from Wollongong, Australia, looks to pass while being guarded by Butler's Andrew Chrabascz in the NCAA Tournament at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee on Thursday. Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Buy Photo. Josie Cooks, the mother of Winthrop basketball player Xavier Cooks, looks to the scoreboard as she watches the game, as she ...

Pine-richland Tops Butler Again To Advance In Class 6a Basketball

... Andrew Petcash, Phil Jurkovec and Andrew Kristofic are good for almost 50 points a game. Saturday, the points were harder to come by and the trio scored only a little more than half of their combined average. But as has been the case so often in this memorable season for the Rams, some “other guy” raises his hand and answers a call for help. Saturday it was Nolan Rausch’s turn to be the “other guy.”. Rausch, a senior guard, scored a career-high 18 points and was instrumental in Pine-Richland beating Butler for the fourth time this season and moving the Rams forward in the PIAA playoffs. Pine-Richland defeated Butler, 64-58, in a Class 6 A quarterfinal before a loud, capacity crowd at North Allegheny. Rausch came into the game averaging only 5 points, but he made three 3-pointers and 7 of 10 from the free-throw line as Pine-Richland (27-1) moved into the semifinals for only the second time in school history (the other was 2000). The Rams will play Tuesday in the semifinals against Carlisle, which defeated Emmaus, 76-74, Saturday in double overtime in another quarterfinal. Rausch hadn’t scored double figures in a game since Jan. 27 — against ...