2. Free throw attempts.
Through the opening month of the season, Butler basketball ranks 20th in the nation in free throw percentage at 76.6%. Quite simply, the Dawgs are not a team that any opponent wants to send to the line because everyone is more than capable of knocking down their charity shots at a high rate. Perhaps most importantly in this facet, it seems as though point guard Aaron Thompson, who was a liability at the stripe last season, has vastly improved his shooting stroke to the point where he can stay on the floor in close games.
Having said all this, Butler basketball does not draw fouls well. At all. Despite an aggressive guard in Kamar Baldwin and a post finisher in Joey Brunk, the Dawgs seem to rarely draw fouls that send them to the line. Statistically, the Dawgs rank 287th in the nation in free throw attempt rate (28.1 FTA/FGA). And while Butler has played just fine so far this season without getting to the stripe, it would be nice if the team could take advantage of this strength (free throw percentage) by attempting more freebies.
In order to make this happen, the Dawgs are going to need to pound the dribble-drive with guards Thompson and Baldwin. Both of these players have the quickness and ballhandling to seemingly get to the basket at will and they should be able to draw a bit more contact than they are now. Furthermore, the addition of Jordan Tucker should help in this regard. He has averaged over three free throw attempts per game so far this season and that is not insubstantial.