Butler Basketball: Takeaways from victory over Western Michigan

Butler Basketball opens the season with a surprisingly close victory over Western Michigan.

With the exception of the final score, Western Michigan took it to the Butler Bulldogs in the season opener on Wednesday night.

Field Goal %: Western Michigan 46% – Butler 40%

3-Point Shooting %: Western Michigan 50% (9 makes) – Butler 25% (5 makes)

Rebounding: Western Michigan 34 – Butler 32

Assists: Western Michigan 13 – Butler 7

Butler was flat outplayed by the Broncos, but the most important aspect is the final score, and the Bulldogs took that statistic with a 66-62 win. How’d they pull it off? By playing Butler basketball and unapologetically getting it done despite not playing its best brand of hoops. This was always going to be a rock fight, which again, typically plays into Butler’s hands.

Aaron Thompson scored 21 and Jair Bolden 15 points with no other Bulldog getting into double figures. That lack of scoring balance sounds a bit disappointing, however, game one gave Bulldog fans a great sense of the type of rotations head coach Lavall Jordan is testing to see what works.

Three freshmen in the Bulldogs touted recruiting class contributed in big ways. Myles Tate started and played 31 minutes while Chuck Harris and JaKobe Coles played 20 and 19 minutes, respectively. Harris’s 5 points led the freshmen. Tate scored 4 and Coles each scored 4.

The stats didn’t look great for Butler, but the biggest concern coming out of the opener came when 2nd team preseason All-Big East pick Bryce Nze went down with an ankle in the second half. That’s something to keep an eye on for Butler fans more than anything else. Nze’s status is currently unknown, but it’s important to point out he’s had foot injury issues since high school.

What else did game one give us an early sense of about this Butler team? Let’s dive into my three biggest takeaways.