Butler basketball defeated Utah last year in the first game of a home-and-home series. Now playing at home, can the Bulldogs defend Hinkle Fieldhouse?
Matchup: Utah Utes (6-1) at Butler Bulldogs (6-2)
Tip Time: 9:00 p.m. ET on Dec. 5
TV schedule: Fox Sports 1
Location: Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN.
Butler Bulldogs Basketball
Without a doubt, Butler’s 75-45 victory over Saint Louis was their best all-around performance of the season to this point. The Billikens might not be the toughest of opponents, but the Bulldogs handled them with absolutely no issue. Not only was the defense as stifling as normal but the offense was also hitting on all cylinders. Butler never trailed against Saint Louis and the team should be able to build on this performance heading into their game against Utah.
In the early going of this season, Butler has been solid. They do not have any resume-building wins to stand on, but their victories over Ohio State and Princeton could develop into solid wins as the season goes on. In addition, their two losses have come against high-level opponents in Maryland and Texas.
Leading the way for Butler through eight games is senior Kelan Martin. Despite tremendous struggles from 3-point range (13-for-59, 22.0%), Martin is shooting 58.3% from inside the arc to reach 16.5 points per game. In addition to his scoring, Martin leads the team in rebounding at 7.5 per game.
Kamar Baldwin and Tyler Wideman are the next two major contributors. Baldwin, just a sophomore, is struggling to get shots to fall this season but has still chipped in 13.0 points per game. On the other hand, Wideman is a defensive-minded big man who is currently dropping in 9.5 points per game while finishing on 68.1% of his shot attempts.
Due to an injury to starting forward Sean McDermott, Paul Jorgensen (9.3 points), Aaron Thompson (6.0 points, 3.9 assists), and Nate Fowler (5.1 points) have all stepped up to play more minutes with larger roles.
As for Butler’s opponent in this game, the Utah Utes are also off to a solid start this season. Despite losing Kyle Kuzma from last year’s team, the Utes are currently sitting at 6-1 in the early going of this season. Utah already holds wins over two major conference opponents (Missouri and Ole Miss) and looked impressive in both games. However, Utah’s inconsistencies showed when they were destroyed by UNLV by a score of 85-58.
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Leading the way for Utah is currently David Collette (14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds). Collette has been a consistent double-digit scorer in his collegiate career and that has not changed this season. The majority of his scoring comes from inside the 3-point arc and he is hitting on 60.7% of shots in the first seven games of this season. After Collette, Justin Bibbins (10.9 points) and Donnie Tillman (10.9 points) are also scoring in double-figures per game.
Overall, Utah has been a balanced team to this point in the year. The Utes are giving up only 65.7 points per game on the defensive end (60th in the nation) and have put up 79.6 points of their own per contest (107th in the nation). This team does a great job at controlling pace and they can play in either a high-scoring game or a defensive battle.
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With how good both of these teams are on the defensive end of the floor, this could end up being a low-scoring game. If this turns out to be the case, I would give the advantage to Butler. With scorers like Martin, Baldwin, and Jorgensen, the Bulldogs have more players that can get their own shots in late-game situations. In addition, this team has been tested in close games much more than Utah so far this season.
Final prediction: Butler 69, Utah 64