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| Like the Butler Bulldogs, Russell is upset by the finale (Arbiter) |
Throughout the history of sports there have been dozens of ridiculous statements made by athletes. From Pete Rose "I did not bet on baseball" to Rafael Palmeiro "I did not take steroids period" as well as the myriad guarantees made by athletes that, in retrospect were total nonsense. Well after the the national championship game last night we may need to add my "They may be underdogs, but Butler will be Top Dogs on Monday" to that illustrious list. I believed in Brad Stevens, I believed in Matt Howard, I believed in the Butler defense, and now I believe I will be served humble pie at lunch for the next week.
In what was easily the most painful championship game to watch possibly ever, Butler battled early before folding like a cheap tent. But as UConn settled down the Bulldogs just got more frazzled, shooting heavily contested long jumpers that only contributed to scoring droughts that seemed to last almost as long as my Physics class. A team renowned for their defense and hustle did some of that, but their inability to score was truly astounding. Butler missed 22 out of 23 shots in the start of the second half! It was one of the most atrocious offensive performances in the history of basketball, and they picked a heck of a night to do it. Butler shot 18.8% from the field. Butler shot 3-31 from inside the paint with no points inside in the entire first half! Yes the Huskies big men were solid but this reflects badly on Butler not well on UConn's D. The Bulldogs got open looks, they had layups that rolled around and dropped out, they had good looks at the basket, but just couldn't get anything to drop.
I sang the praises of Butlers "star" but it looked like he fell into a black hole. Matt Howard, he who averages 16.4 points per game, got 7. The typically scrappy forward, looked out of it from the start, but the way he was out-rebounded and out-hustled cannot be blamed on the dome or championship game nerves. In the second half while UConn remained composed, Howard lost it and Butler crumpled. I cannot even exempt wonderboy Brad Stevens from post championship game scorn. When the offensive game plan should have been to try and get good looks early on, instead Butler came out shooting heavily contested long jumpers. Stevens didn't adapt until it was much too late, and never tried to get easier buckets. When you aren't shooting well stop shooting bombs, but butler didn't and this killed them. Stevens also totally went against his teams M.O. ordering the Bulldogs to play zone in the second half. Butler isn't a zone team; they are an aggressive in your face defensive team but Stevens threw that out the window and Kemba and Lamb took over from their.
But most of all Butler didn't show any fight. When they went into halftime leading by 3, there terrible play perfectly equaled by the Huskies they still didn't look confident. When Connecticut pulled away we never saw a response. Instead of punching back Butler tapped out. how does a team in the championship game not show fight? How does a team that had been their before lose their composure? Easy as the threes went wide left, right, short, long and everywhere but in Butler focused on these woes instead of playing in the moment. They lost composure and were preoccupied with having the worst offensive game in recent memory, and let Oriakhi fly in for rebounds and easy points, and let Walker walk all over them. There's no excuse for that. Butler had two chances, and once again fell short due to miss, but at least against Duke they battled.
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Hoops is about match-ups, and Uconn definetley controlled the interior, and prevented any inside success. It helped that the refs let them play. Thye put long defenders on Mack and had constant pressure on the ball. On the other side of the court----back to match-ups--- the speed of Kemba and the other Uconn guards was unmatched and they went where they wanted to at will. Calhoun did a great job of successfully coaching to his match-up strengths. 2 huge factors were the previously mentioend refs calling a loose game, and the fact that butler's shooters were worse than Uconn's (partly due to contested shots). Wish I bet the under.
ReplyDeleteRussell, kudos for eating a big slice of humble pie. It's not easy to write a mea culpa like you just did.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree in your criticism of Brad Stevens, and how he totally went against Butler's M.O. by switching to a zone defense in the second half. As I said in my post, Butler hadn't played a single second of zone in the entire tournament. They knew that UConn's previous opponents had been successful when using the zone, but Stevens should've known better -- changing your defensive gameplan when you're losing in the 2nd half of the title game is not a good idea. Butler's zone wasn't effective, they never recovered and their deficit only grew.
However, I disagree with Russell on 2 points. First, Butler showed plenty of fight. I never saw them lose their composure. There were no frustration fouls, no technical fouls, no mouthing off to the coach. No bonehead mistakes, sloppy play, or trash talking. In fact, despite getting their asses kicked on a national (worldwide?) stage, they remained remarkably composed. They didn't let UConn just waltz in there and snatch the game away. Instead, they just didn't hit enough shots. They had a bad shooting night at the worst possible time, and they were simply overmatched. Basketball is a matchup sport, and the Huskies were a bad matchup for the Bulldogs.
Secondly, you mentioned that Butler's 18.8 FG% reflected badly on Butler and not well on UConn's D. I think that is a misconception that at least half the media has. UConn's D cannot be measured quantitatively (although they did have 10 blocks). It was their length, size, and athleticism. Lamb's freakishly long arms affected their three-point shooting. Oriakhi's size and Okwandu's 7 foot height prevented Howard and Smith from asserting themselves in the paint, and from getting offensive rebounds. Shabazz Napier's quickness prevented Mack from getting past his off the dribble. None of that shows up in the box score. So do you really think it's a coincidence that Butler, which shot 41% in their first 5 games of the tournament, just happened to crap the bed against UConn by shooting 18%? You have to give the Huskies more credit than that. They played a huge role in shutting down the Bulldogs' offense.