Butler Game Thread

[Venturajay]

Nice Win if Neal and Kalk play like they did yesterday we can do some damage in the conference and tourney this year. Go Jays

[Chicagojayfan]

A few thoughts on this win. While the luck hasn't exactly been with the team this year, they are finding ways to adapt and overcome and figure out ways to win.

1. Offense - this was our best offensive performance on the road all year, by far. 115.1 Offensive rating. 2nd best was 98.7 at Bama (98.2 at Marquette). Worst was 83.5 at GT

2. Defense - We haven't played well defensively on the road, but this was a decent performance and nothing like the 118.6 we gave up versus GT

3. Turnovers - lowest % of turnovers all year. That will help give us road wins!

4. Rebounding - 52.4% Our only loss with over 50% was Marquette

Special call out for toughness - Kalk and Ash were critical to this won, and they went out while sick and got it done on the road. Neal was outstanding in the 2nd half, and the role players mostly got the job done. This team has some big holes with Pop out for the year, but we can't blame their toughness

[wildjays]

Bluejay Beat podcast is posted. The Jays got a needed road win.
Matt DeMarinis and Jacob Padilla break things down, answer your questions and more.

Join and subscribe our Patreon to listen.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/bluejay-b ... =join_link

[D Jay Fan]

Rewatching the game, here are some thoughts.
Maybe the best game I have seen Gaffney ref. He missed the 2 fouls Butler had on Kalk in the same possession but overall there wasn't the OMG moment I usually see in any game he is involved in. Of course, Driscol couldn't help himself in the 2nd half. CU did benefit from a couple of his guesses, though. Sometimes I think he calls a foul so he can get a breather.
When he watches the game, Ashworth is going to cringe. If he doesn't airmail a pass to Kalk and one to Green for easy layups, he would have had his triple double. And like he said in the postgame, his shots look good, but they are just a touch off. Hopefully that changes soon
I don't want to beat up on Mason, and it wasn't just the screen he went under towards the end of the game. He ran around the whole time he was in the game but accomplished little. In both halves he just doesn't help. Green has to find a way to stay on the floor in the 2nd half.
Our 4s need to rebound better. McAndrew waits for the ball to come to him. Rebound, rebound, rebound. And you will be in the end of the game when we are ahead. Otherwise, he is only needed when we are behind.
Mac had a good game. He made BU pay when they put Bizjack on Neal. It is a big reason we won. He was pretty quiet until that point in the game.
And do the ladies really have that much problem with going pee in their undies that we need a bunch of commercials that will ship them to their house discreetly

[Chicagojayfan]

...
I don't want to beat up on Mason, and it wasn't just the screen he went under towards the end of the game. He ran around the whole time he was in the game but accomplished little. In both halves he just doesn't help. Green has to find a way to stay on the floor in the 2nd half.
Our 4s need to rebound better. McAndrew waits for the ball to come to him. Rebound, rebound, rebound. And you will be in the end of the game when we are ahead. Otherwise, he is only needed when we are behind.
Mac had a good game. He made BU pay when they put Bizjack on Neal. It is a big reason we won. He was pretty quiet until that point in the game.
...

I won't beat this debate to death as Miller needs to hit some shots and get into at least the level he was last year, but It's not even close to my eyes, by far the best minutes we've seen from this team in the past few games are with Miller on the floor.

Neal's ability to get a favorable matchup and to have the space to operate against Bizjack were in good part because Butler had a defender tightly following Miller around the court. While he wasn't getting shots, he was very active with his movement and outside of his giving up the 1 3pt shot, he otherwise played good D on McCaffrey and even on Telfort for a stretch.

Outside of Kalkbrenner and Ashworth, we have a bunch of players who excel at a few things, but not the entirety of what we'd want for the other positions on the floor, and beyond that because of Pop being out, we have Neal trying to play the 2, and Green sliding into the 3. We could really use another ballhandler at the 2, and a guy who could hit some shots from 3, but Fedor isn't into that flow yet and we have this strange roster where we have to just work to get a lineup on the floor that is effective

[Alphawalt]

...
I don't want to beat up on Mason, and it wasn't just the screen he went under towards the end of the game. He ran around the whole time he was in the game but accomplished little. In both halves he just doesn't help. Green has to find a way to stay on the floor in the 2nd half.
Our 4s need to rebound better. McAndrew waits for the ball to come to him. Rebound, rebound, rebound. And you will be in the end of the game when we are ahead. Otherwise, he is only needed when we are behind.
Mac had a good game. He made BU pay when they put Bizjack on Neal. It is a big reason we won. He was pretty quiet until that point in the game.
...

I won't beat this debate to death as Miller needs to hit some shots and get into at least the level he was last year, but It's not even close to my eyes, by far the best minutes we've seen from this team in the past few games are with Miller on the floor.

Neal's ability to get a favorable matchup and to have the space to operate against Bizjack were in good part because Butler had a defender tightly following Miller around the court. While he wasn't getting shots, he was very active with his movement and outside of his giving up the 1 3pt shot, he otherwise played good D on McCaffrey and even on Telfort for a stretch.

Outside of Kalkbrenner and Ashworth, we have a bunch of players who excel at a few things, but not the entirety of what we'd want for the other positions on the floor, and beyond that because of Pop being out, we have Neal trying to play the 2, and Green sliding into the 3. We could really use another ballhandler at the 2, and a guy who could hit some shots from 3, but Fedor isn't into that flow yet and we have this strange roster where we have to just work to get a lineup on the floor that is effective

Miller is just horrible. I don’t get the supporters/apologists that argue he is actually somewhat beneficial on the court. We almost choked the game against a team on its longest losing streak in 35 years!!! We were up by 12 with 5 minutes to play, and it was with Miller in the game that it was cut to 3, and Miller was specifically taken out of the game when the lead was cut to three when he totally blew his defensive assignment and allowed the wide open shot. Prior to that he had trouble inbounding the ball and certainly has no ball handling skills to break any press. He did not take any shots so no way he was ever perceived as a threat for purposes of spreading the floor. Had he been taken out earlier the game would not have gotten close. And as a reminder, he is still at 11 percent three point shooting, has scored ZERO points in TEN games and has hit a whopping THREE three points shots all season.

[Chicagojayfan]

...
I don't want to beat up on Mason, and it wasn't just the screen he went under towards the end of the game. He ran around the whole time he was in the game but accomplished little. In both halves he just doesn't help. Green has to find a way to stay on the floor in the 2nd half.
Our 4s need to rebound better. McAndrew waits for the ball to come to him. Rebound, rebound, rebound. And you will be in the end of the game when we are ahead. Otherwise, he is only needed when we are behind.
Mac had a good game. He made BU pay when they put Bizjack on Neal. It is a big reason we won. He was pretty quiet until that point in the game.
...

I won't beat this debate to death as Miller needs to hit some shots and get into at least the level he was last year, but It's not even close to my eyes, by far the best minutes we've seen from this team in the past few games are with Miller on the floor.

Neal's ability to get a favorable matchup and to have the space to operate against Bizjack were in good part because Butler had a defender tightly following Miller around the court. While he wasn't getting shots, he was very active with his movement and outside of his giving up the 1 3pt shot, he otherwise played good D on McCaffrey and even on Telfort for a stretch.

Outside of Kalkbrenner and Ashworth, we have a bunch of players who excel at a few things, but not the entirety of what we'd want for the other positions on the floor, and beyond that because of Pop being out, we have Neal trying to play the 2, and Green sliding into the 3. We could really use another ballhandler at the 2, and a guy who could hit some shots from 3, but Fedor isn't into that flow yet and we have this strange roster where we have to just work to get a lineup on the floor that is effective

Miller is just horrible. I don’t get the supporters/apologists that argue he is actually somewhat beneficial on the court. We almost choked the game against a team on its longest losing streak in 35 years!!! We were up by 12 with 5 minutes to play, and it was with Miller in the game that it was cut to 3, and Miller was specifically taken out of the game when the lead was cut to three when he totally blew his defensive assignment and allowed the wide open shot. Prior to that he had trouble inbounding the ball and certainly has no ball handling skills to break any press. He did not take any shots so no way he was ever perceived as a threat for purposes of spreading the floor. Had he been taken out earlier the game would not have gotten close. And as a reminder, he is still at 11 percent three point shooting, has scored ZERO points in TEN games and has hit a whopping THREE three points shots all season.

sucks for you that with him on the court we more consistently get and extend leads... funny how the scoreboard matters more than your opinion

[Django]

Rewatched the game and Kalk didn’t dominate their two backup centers until the second half, when he really came out and took it to them. They are probably the worst two 5s in the conference but it was nice to see the big guy assert himself.

Again, I think the game ball goes to Jamiya for his shot creation over that stretch where he scored 8 unanswered points and we built a 12 point lead. I did notice on a few of those layups and the floater by Neal that Miller WAS in there and he did a great job of moving out past the 3-point line and dragging his man with him, giving JN space to work his magic. So he did do that, as Chicago noted. Nice work by the coaches to get that accomplished.

[WBR Tom]

ICYMI, here's the Morning After recap from the win over Butler. Lots of stats and analysis on Kalk's big game, Ashworth's line, the defense and more:

https://whiteandbluereview.com/morning- ... ler-80-76/