Butler basketball jumped out to an early double-digit lead over Missouri at the Hall of Fame Classic and never let go. What were my biggest takeaways?
There aren’t that many things left to say about how well Butler basketball has played to open this season. Even though the Dawgs were picked to finish eighth in the Big East in the preseason, they have come out ready to prove that prediction wrong through the first few weeks of the campaign. Butler opened the season with five consecutive dominant home wins leading to a massive rise in efficiency metrics but just picked up its best win of the year. In the Dawgs’ first trip outside of Hinkle Fieldhouse this season, the team opened up an early lead on Missouri at the Hall of Fame Classic and never looked back.
Seemingly from the opening tip of the game, Butler took control of the pace as well as the scoreboard. Missouri entered this game with the sixth-best adjusted defensive rating in the country but Butler made them look…well…bad over the first 10 minutes while jumping out to a massive 25-7 lead. From there, the Tigers were able to trim their deficit to single-digits on a couple of occasions but the Dawgs’ experience shone through with consistent big plays defensively and on the glass.
The final score displayed an 11-point advantage in favor of the Dawgs, 63-52.
“Don’t sell yourselves short...because I know you have it in you.” In the locker room after the W. #ButlerWay pic.twitter.com/1O3fxsOBI5
— Butler Basketball (@ButlerMBB) November 26, 2019
Even though this is just the sixth game of the season, it felt like Butler was out to make a statement and they did just that. The Dawgs led for nearly 39 minutes of the contest and showed their “gritty not pretty” mantra when necessary. Balanced scoring led the way offensively with a few unsung heroes shining bright and the defense looked as elite as it had in front of the Hinkle faithful.
With the final buzzer now having sounded, let’s dive into my biggest takeaways from Butler’s double-digit win over Missouri.