Big East Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

Projected Starters:

Guards – Aaron Thompson-SR, Chuck Harris-FR and Jair Bolden-SR*

Forwards – Bryce Nze-SR, and Bryce Golden-JR

Bench – Christian David-SR, Myles Tate-FR, JaKobe Coles-FR, Markeese Hastings-SO, John Michael Mulloy-SO, Bo Hodges-SR*

One look at Butler’s roster and it’s easy to tell that there are some really good news and some really bad news heading into the 2020-21 basketball season.

Let’s start with the good news.

They have one of the surest things at the point guard position in the conference and one of the best defenders at his position in the country in Aaron Thompson (7.2 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 4.7 Ast). It’s always promising when the good news starts with the floor general.

The Bulldogs also have one of the most under the radar starting frontcourts in the Big East if not the country in Bryce Nze (9.2 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 1.4 Ast) and Bryce Golden (7.9 Pts, 3.9 Reb, 1.1 Ast). Both bigs rank top 10 in the Big East in 2-point field goal percentage on only six shots apiece per game and Nze returns for 2020-21 as one of the best rebounders in the conference.

Now the bad news.

Head Coach Lavall Jordan doesn’t have a deep bench and that is not something that was expected. It started with Jordan Tucker’s announcement that he would forego his senior season and explore professional opportunities. Then, talented but most of the time underwhelming freshman Khalif Battle transferred to Temple.

Finally, the Bulldogs’ best incoming freshman and presumed starter at small forward Scooby Johnson went down with a torn ACL during workouts the last week of August, and within a matter of months, three expected contributors are out of the equation entirely.

Lucky for Jordan, he’s got the good news above to revert to and it just might be enough for Butler to push for a what “should” be a third NCAA tournament (Butler was a lock prior to the pandemic shutdown in 2019-20) in his four years at his alma mater.

Joining Thompson in the backcourt is South Carolina graduate transfer and sharpshooter Jair Bolden. Bolden who averaged 11.2 points per game at George Washington as a sophomore before transferring to the SEC where he chipped in 8.4 points a contest and led the Gamecocks in 3-point shooting at 41% as a redshirt junior. With Kamar Baldwin and Sean McDermott graduating, Jordan had to find some type of scoring punch in the backcourt and Bolden was a formidable solution.

The lack of depth is a problem and it’s an even bigger problem now that Butler needs to find someone to fill the starting position left by Johnson. The Bulldogs will more than likely have to do it by committee, and it will force one of the best-recruiting classes in Butler history to step up immediately.

Chuck Harris, Myles Tate, and JaKobe Coles are all top-160 recruits and are capable, but how quickly will they be able to define the roles in the rotation that each must play? If Christian David (2.6 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 0.6 Ast) can return from his own torn ACL and make an impact on both ends of the floor it would go along way as well in helping the freshmen ease into the Big East grind.

Holistically speaking, Butler will go as far as Thompson, Nze, and Golden take them and the biggest job that those three have will be staying out of foul trouble. It might sound like an easy feat, but that threesome led the Bulldogs in personal fouls in 2019-20 with Golden averaging 3 fouls and Thompson and Nze averaging 2.5 per contest. Defending without fouling must be a priority for the 2020-21 campaign or Butler is going to struggle to remain competitive.

If Lavall Jordan’s team can stay out of foul trouble and maintain a top 15 scoring defense nationally, they have the talent and experience to compete in the middle of the Big East pack and have a shot at an at large bid next spring.