No March Magic for Butler

Well it was a fun two year ride in the NCAA Tourney, but Butler won't be part of that madness this year.  Hard to believe after getting to back to back National Championship games that this team won't be there.  They got handled in their game against Valparaiso against that same Valpo team that had beat Butler twice already.

There are other postseason tourneys that Butler might be a part of, but let's admit it no one cares about those.  This team might be good to get experience playing in those, but fans won't really worry about where they go in that.

This was a team that struggled to score all night against Valpo, and especially in the paint as the big men of Butler (Andrew Smith, Khyle Marshall, and Roosevelt Jones) combined for four points.  Andrew Smith had zero points, and definitely got pushed around there on the block.  But keep an eye on Roosevelt Jones.  He is a freshman this year, who won newcomer of the year for the Horizon League, and should be a big focus for Butler next year. I expect big things from him in the coming years.

So this team will go home and wait to see if they are playing somewhere else, but this season was definitely an up and down year.  It started out with that brutal non conference schedule that had one conference game in there that Butler lost...to Valpo.  So going into conference play, Butler was sitting at 6-7 with a win against Stanford and then three wins to start off the conference season.

But it seemed that there would be a few wins, then a couple of losses, a few wins, and a loss.  Just not consistent enough to vie for the league title as Butler finished in fifth place, when they had a chance on the last game of the regular season to clinch up second place, and earn that double bye.

Who knows if that would have helped this team or not?  That Valpo team would have been tough to play in my mind anywhere Butler played them.  They just had their number this year.  Butler struggled on the offensive side of the ball at times, and that was what did them in their losses this year.

Hopefully, the shooting touch will come back around next year.  Guys will be more comfortable playing.  Roles can be defined more.  That experience of playing a year will help the freshman.  There's some talent coming in that can perform way.  Butler will be back playing in March.  Just have to sit out this year, and find another team to root for.  But man what a couple of years it has been!