This wasn’t the start Butler coach Brad Stevens had in mind.
Northern State scored the final 12 points including a shot at the buzzer to knock off Butler on their home floor 53-50. This is the same Northern State team that lost at Purdue 78-46 Tuesday night. Andrew Smith led Butler with 19 points and 8 rebounds while Khyle Marshall added 14.
Unfortunately for Butler, it was as if their poor shooting from the 2011 title game against Connecticut carried over. They were just 18-55 from the field (32.7%) and connected on just 3-of-18 three-pointers (16.7%).
Losing at the last second is a buzz kill, especially when the Bulldogs left ten points at the free throw line — making just 11 of 21 tries. The field goal woes don’t worry Stevens who says his team had been shooting well.
“They made us shoot and they made us take shots that to be quite honest in practice we’ve been hitting. Guys have been shooting it well.”
You ask where Northern State is? That would be Aberdeen, South Dakota. Who knew?
These upsets happen. LeMoyne beating Syracuse or Indianapolis over Tennessee come to mind?
This was the first game for Butler post-Matt Howard who graduating and is now playing overseas. Howard was an active and efficient big man that made those around him better. He was an automatic double-figures guy and a double-double seemed usual. Coming into Butler he was tremendously underrated but talking with many that have followed the program for decades agree, Howard is the best ever in Butler history.
Butler was also without Shelvin Mack who left early for the NBA draft and was taken 34th overall by the Washington Wizards. It was a different seeing Gordon Hayward and Mack at the game Wednesday but not in uniform.
With the changing of the guard, the Bulldogs are a relatively young team with six freshman and three sophomores on the roster. The young guys struggled in their first appearance in a Butler uniform. Smith and Marshall must take a leadership in addition to a strong performance on the court.
WNDY Butler analyst Ralph Reiff tweeted his quick analysis after the game. “1st half inefficient, never a 5 man effort. Northern State gets confidence, makes shots. Butler passing game poor, too quick to shoot…all BU play is correctable. Will improve. Defense never had all 5 together on action/talk/help. Left gaps. Northern exploited”
“We have a lot of work to do,” coach Brad Stevens said following the loss. “We have a lot of time to do it, but the bottom line is we’ve got to be a lot better in almost every area.”
Butler hosts Franklin on Saturday for their second and final exhibition game.
Definitely a poor showing but I’m not really concerned at all. Only thing I am really worried about with the group that was playing is a playmaker from the perimeter. Fortunately Hopkins should be back for the season opener and he can provide that. It might be another slow start but this team will be capable of making noise come tournament time (not necessarily final four noise, but then again, I didn’t think that the last 2 years).