Crucial game for Butler tonight as a win over Valpo would earn the Bulldogs the much coveted
for the Horizon League Tournament. The Crusaders have already locked up the regular season crown and No. 1. seed.
Probably not. At the risk of being tautological, the thing I liked about last year’s late-season surge was that last year’s team was better. Last year’s team had Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack. Last year’s team outscored the Horizon by a very respectable 0.09 points per trip.
This year’s team, conversely, will end the year outscoring a slightly weaker Horizon League by a significantly smaller margin. Even during this current four-game surgette, the Bulldogs are still mustering just 1.01 points per trip, and their three-point shooting’s actually been worse (23 percent) than what we’ve seen from this notably inaccurate group over the course of the Horizon season (26 percent).
“The past three years when we’ve gone on these streaks, as a collective unit, our focus has just been on another level,” Butcher said. “We’re starting to see it happen with this team too.”
