Butler basketball began Big East Conference play with a wacky road win in a tale-of-two-halves game against St. John’s. What did we learn?
Butler basketball just continues to find ways to win games. During its conference opener on New Years’ Eve, the Dawgs came out of the gates absolutely firing on the road against St. John’s. As a result, they were able to set the pace of the contest and leap out to a 21-point advantage by halftime.
When Kamar Baldwin went out of the game due to an ankle injury, though, the wheels simply fell off. With their star on the bench, the Dawgs turned the ball over at an incredibly uncharacteristic rate and the Red Storm not only cut their deficit but even took a five-point lead with a few minutes left to play.
Yet, it was at this point that Butler found a way to compose itself and come up with big plays down the stretch to walk away victorious. Most importantly, Baldwin returned from his injury to sink a huge 3-pointer, make a tough right-handed runner, and then dish out an assist for the go-ahead bucket in the final minute. Christian David was the one on the receiving end of the pass and he stepped up by burying the corner three to cap off Butler’s win.
Was this victory particularly pretty? No, not at all. Was it gritty? Not during St. John’s massive run in the second half, but it definitely was in the final three minutes. In the end, though, the Dawgs survived arguably their worst performance of the season while coming away with a true road win in Big East play. That is pretty impressive, in my opinion.
While many Butler fans might want to breathe a sigh of relief and simply leave this game in the past decade, let’s dive a little deeper and analyze some of the biggest takeaways. Spoiler: The takeaways are more positive than you would expect considering the team’s second-half performance.