No. 2 Loser – Butler Bulldogs
Butler had not been playing the best basketball of the season coming into this week but they had two winnable games against Seton Hall and Xavier. They were in both games but came up a point short in each of them. That would be a tough week just by looking at the scores, but the way they lost to Xavier makes this a very bad week for the Bulldogs.
Leading by 10 with four minutes left against the Musketeers, you would have thought Butler was well on their way to getting to 2-2 in the Big East. Well, Xavier had other plans and made a furious comeback capped off by a free throw from Naji Marshall with 3.2 seconds left. This would have been a big win for the Bulldogs, especially on the road, but now is a big lost opportunity. The Bulldogs will now need to try and recover quickly or they will go from bubble team to NIT team in a hurry.
No. 2 Winner – Zavier Simpson
Simpson has been one of the best defensive guards in the country. He has also been a great leader for the number two ranked Michigan Wolverines. What he hasn’t been is an offensive weapon for most of the season. It did not look like that this week, though, as he scored 16 against Illinois and then a career-high 24 against Northwestern on Sunday.
This past week Simpson showed that he would take what the other team gave him and helped lead the team to two wins and setting a school record with a 17-0 start. The Illinois game was great, but the Northwestern game seemed to mean more to Simpson. In their first meeting of the year, the Wildcats decided to play off of Simpson and make him hit threes. He couldn’t and had to be benched.
Sunday was a different story as he went 5-10 from downtown to quiet everyone who thought he couldn’t shoot. It was a statement game for Simpson and helped lead the team to a 20 point win.