Butler Basketball: Keys to success against New Orleans in 2019-20

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 02: Sean McDermott #22 of the Butler Bulldogs dribbles the ball against Saddiq Bey #15 of the Villanova Wildcats in the first half at the Wells Fargo Center on March 2, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

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DAYTON, OH – MARCH 14: Coach Slessinger of New Orleans. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Opponent Intel: New Orleans Privateers

New Orleans head coach Mark Slessinger has done an impressive job since taking over the program. This will be his eighth season at the helm of the Privateers and the program has seemingly exceeded expectations during every single season. The squad is fresh off three consecutive seasons of at least 11 conference wins and that is expected to continue into 2019-20. For essentially the first time under Coach Slessinger’s leadership, New Orleans is facing high expectations this season as the preseason favorite to win the Southland Conference.

Even though the Privateers waved goodbye to Ezekiel Charles, Scott Plaisance, and Jorge Rosa this offseason, there is plenty of returning talent for the team to post a strong conference record. New Orleans has only reached the NCAA Tournament once under Coach Slessinger as a No. 16 seed in 2017. They will be hoping to match that result during this campaign while also potentially striking fear into a No. 1 seed on the opening night of the Big Dance. Now that it’s happened once (UMBC), you never know when it will happen again.

With regard to the returning roster members, Bryson Robinson is the clear leader for New Orleans. The 6-foot-4 senior guard was selected to the preseason All-Southland team and the majority of the offense will run through him. The Privateers pride themselves on defense while being one of the worst offensive teams in the country. Robinson averaged 11.5 points per game last season and is practically the only viable perimeter shooting threat on the entire roster.

New Orleans will provide a much different type of game for Butler compared to IUPUI because of their stylistic differences. The Dawgs will still be ~20-point favorites to win at home but that doesn’t make how they respond to the Privateers’ system not worth monitoring. Coach Slessinger deploys an elite perimeter defensive group that forces turnovers and refuses to allow open looks from 3-point range. They essentially carry the same mentality (but in reverse) to the offensive end as they rarely attempt trifectas and often cough up the ball.

That concludes this overview of the Privateers, so now let’s dive a bit deeper into this particular matchup with some keys to the game for the Butler Bulldogs.