Busting Brackets
Fansided

Butler Basketball: Breaking down each 2018-19 non-conference opponent

By Lukas Harkins

CINCINNATI, OH - JANUARY 02: Jordan the head coach of the Butler Bulldogs gives instructions to his team against the Xavier Musketeers at the Cintas Center on January 2, 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
CINCINNATI, OH - JANUARY 02: Jordan the head coach of the Butler Bulldogs gives instructions to his team against the Xavier Musketeers at the Cintas Center on January 2, 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
11 of 12
Next
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – NOVEMBER 12: Thompson #2 of the Butler Bulldogs trips. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – NOVEMBER 12: Thompson #2 of the Butler Bulldogs trips. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Dec. 21: UC-Irvine at Butler

UC-Irvine is a team that could really surprise some people during this upcoming campaign. An extremely young team a year ago, the Anteaters return every single player who averaged more than 10 minutes per game last season. With this kind of returning production, UC-Irvine will be an incredibly deep team with a fair amount of experience considering every major rotation player will be a junior or senior. The Anteaters will likely enter this season as one of the preseason favorites to win the Big West after finishing second a year ago.

Big East breakout candidates. light. Related Story

However, it is important to note that the Big West is not a remarkable strong conference in the first place. In fact, even though UC-Irvine went 11-5 in conference play last season, they still wound up finishing with just an 18-17 overall record. In terms of conference RPI last season, the Big West ranked 22nd out of 32 leagues.

Due to the fact that the Anteaters were one of the better defensive mid-majors nationally last season, the bigger problem could be scoring in this matchup. Because of this, the key players to watch in this matchup for UC-Irvine will be guards Evan Leonard (13.6 points) and Eyassu Worku (11.3 points, 3.7 assists). If these above can hold their own offensively against the likes of Baldwin and Thompson, then this could be a reasonably close game.