#8 Xavier beats Butler 73-61

Not quite the night I envisioned for my Butler Bulldogs.  This was a rough game that Butler tried to get back into, but ultimately came up short.  It's hard to be in the game when your shoot is horrible. Butler shot 19-62 from the field, and only made two three pointers in twenty one attempts.  That's just asking for a loss.  The bigger issue is the consistency of this team.  One minute they're within a couple of points, and the next minute their opponent is on a run of 10 or more points.  That's usually not the calling card of a Butler team.  These guys need to step up their defense, and make stops when they need to.  Also, leadership is hard to find on this team right now.  I believe there's only one senior on this young squad of players. Ronald Nored needs to be vocal on and off the court, and show he's a leader for the team.  Young guys like, Chrishawn Hopkins and Andrew Smith, really need to step up their games. They are two guys who I believe should be scorers and play makers.  It's going to be a tough road if the Bulldogs can't get going in the right direction.  Especially with games like Purdue, Gonzaga, and Stanford all coming up before the conference season really kicks off.  Butler already has one loss in the conference due to a Saturday loss to Valpo.  I think if the Bulldogs get things squared away, you'll see something good come out of it. It's too early to totally count out this team.  Give it a few months for guys to develop and let's hope they're making another run in the conference tourney and the big dance for the NCAA tourney.  GO DAWGS!