5. A piece of Hinkle Magic for the road
It is no secret that Butler basketball is superb in front of their home crowd at Hinkle Fieldhouse. That was made abundantly clear in the first month of this season as the Bulldogs once again went undefeated at home during non-conference play. The Dawgs now own the second-longest home non-conference winning streak at 50 games. Quite simply, going into Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral and escaping with a win is never easy.
With that said, though, Butler has struggled when leaving the confines of Hinkle so far this season. With road and neutral-site contests taken into account, the Dawgs are just 2-3 when playing away from home. Additionally, one could argue that Butler’s two worst performances (Dayton, Saint Louis) both came away from home. So with a road bout against Florida followed by conference play approaching, the Dawgs will need to figure out how to win outside of Hinkle.
Thankfully, defense always travels well and Butler has an elite group of backcourt defenders. Thompson and Baldwin, the two starters, may get the majority of the credit for this but it also important to mention that Henry Baddley can also be an elite defender off the bench. To put it simply, Butler’s backcourt consistently makes life difficult on opponents and that is something that should continue away from home.
Butler has 10 road games left on the schedule…how will they perform?
In the end, this season has the potential to be very special for Butler basketball. Head coach LaVall Jordan’s team boasts defense, shooting, and an insane amount of depth that should help the team pile up wins in Big East play. If the Dawgs reach their fullest potential, there seems to be no reason to believe they cannot win the conference.