Butler Basketball: Top-10 Bulldogs of the century (2000-2018)
8. Rylan Hainje (1998 – 2002)
Career Stats (4 years): 10.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game
Speaking of players who dominated in the early part of the century, Rylan Hainge slightly edges his teammate Jackson out on this list. It is easy to forget about players who were excellent in the era of Butler basketball before exploding on the national stage. Yet, this would be a disservice to players like Hainje because they played an integral role in fostering the culture that is now “The Butler Way.”
In his four years with Butler, Hainje was the primary scorer next to Jackson in the late-90’s and early 2000’s. After three seasons of hovering around 10 points per game, Hainje was at his best during his senior campaign. This was the first year after the Midwestern Collegiate Conference was retitled the Horizon League and he was named the conference’s first Player of the Year under the new name. During that season, he averaged a team-high 15.2 points while also contributing 6.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.6 steals per game.
No. 42 also showed tremendous improvement as a shooter during his time as a Bulldog. He was a career 39.6% shooter from beyond the arc, with the majority of those makes coming in his final two seasons. In fact, after averaging 0.3 3PA (10.0%) and 0.4 3PA (50.0%) in his freshman and sophomore campaigns, he went into higher-volume as a junior (1.6 3PA, 41.2%) and senior (3.4 3PA, 40.4%). This kind of improvement epitomized Hainje, who ranks 19th on Butler’s all-time scoring list.
The 6’6” forward played in two NCAA Tournaments during his years on campus and won at least 20 games in each of his four seasons.