After nearly a week off following the B4A, Butler basketball is back in action. The Dawgs will be taking on Saint Louis in their first true road game.
The opening month of Butler basketball play is complete. Now six games into the new year, the Dawgs stand at 5-1 with a couple of quality wins over Ole Miss and Florida. Their lone loss came at the hands of Dayton, which, although unexpected, may not be as bad as many originally thought. Quite simply, the team is off to a predictably solid start with plenty of room to grow.
Kamar Baldwin, the star player of the Dawgs, has been one of the top performers in the nation so far this year. Even though he has not quite found his stroke from deep yet, he is managing to put up outstanding averages of 19.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. Oh, and it certainly helps that he is getting plenty of help on the perimeter thanks to the steady scoring of Paul Jorgensen (18.5 points) and Sean McDermott (10.8 points).
Additionally, the team is currently in good standing with results-based and predictive metrics (yes, it is way too early to draw any conclusions from this):
- NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET): 28th
- Average of KP, Sag, BPI, Haslam, T-Rank: 25.4
Looking forward, the next step for Butler basketball this year is its first road test of the year. On Dec. 1, the Dawgs will travel to Chaifetz Arena to take on Saint Louis. The Billikens, who were the preseason favorites to win the Atlantic 10 this year, currently stand at 5-1 and are undefeated at home. They are led by three double-digit scorers in Javon Bess (14.0 points, 7.2 rebounds), Tramaine Isabell (13.2 points), and Jordan Goodwin (11.0 points).
This will prove to be a tough challenge for the Bulldogs so let’s take a look at three facets of the game that might be most important to success.