Big East Basketball: 2020-21 power rankings heading into New Year

9. Butler 2-5 (1-3)

It’s hard to know what to make of Butler. The eye test certainly doesn’t look good though for a team playing without its starting point guard and sometimes featuring three freshmen on the floor for long periods of time.

One of the most startling losses for any team in the Big East came when the Bulldogs lost to Southern Illinois on December 21st without Anthony Thompson  (17.5 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 5.0 Ast). Butler then turned around and beat a solid Providence team two days later, still without Thompson. That win showed growth from its young players but didn’t solve anything Butler is going to have to deal with all season long.

Butler lacks depth, it is playing freshmen more minutes than any team in the conference, and they uncharacteristically can’t shoot free throws, making only 62% of them.

On top of that, upperclassmen Bryce Golden (10.0 Pts, 6.0 Reb, 0.8 Ast) and Bryce Nze (9.3 Pts, 7.2 Reb, 2.0 Ast) have not stepped up in the absence of Thompson, who went down with a leg injury in Butler’s second game.

Nze in particular, a 6’7 forward prior to Saturday vs Seton Hall had turned the ball over 19 times (2x any other Butler player) in six games and is shooting 7-21 (33%) at the free throw line. How many possessions/points has he cost the Bulldogs? A lot. Butler is not going to win with its preseason All-Big East forward playing that type of basketball.