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Bulldogs Face Wright State In League Tournament
Feb. 28, 2005
TOURNAMENT TIME: The Bulldogs (13-14, 7-9 HL), seeded seventh, will begin Horizon League Tournament play in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday, March 1. Butler will face sixth-seeded Wright State (14-14, 8-8 HL) in a first round game at the Nutter Center. The 7 p.m. (EST) contest is one of three opening round games slated for campus sites on Tuesday. Loyola (11-16, 8-8 HL), the #4 seed, will host #9 seed Youngstown State (5-22, 2-14 HL), and #5 seed UIC (14-13, 8-8 HL) will host #8 seed Cleveland State (9-16, 6-10 HL). The three opening round winners will join #3 seed Detroit (12-15, 9-7 HL) in the second round at the U. S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee, Wis., on Friday, March 4. Top-seeded UW-Milwaukee (22-5, 14-2 HL) and #2 seed UW-Green Bay (17-10, 10-6 HL) both received a bye to the tournament semifinals in Milwaukee on Saturday, March 5. The league championship game will be nationally-televised on ESPN at 9 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, March 8. The winner of the Horizon League Tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Butler ended the regular season with three consecutive wins, including a victory over 2004 Horizon League Tournament champ UIC.
The Bulldogs are 6-2 in Horizon League Tournament games at the Nutter Center. THIRD WATCH: Butler is facing Wright State for the third time this season, and the Bulldogs are trying to come up with a different finish. Wright State won the first two meetings, despite trailing for more than 75% of both contests! The Raiders held a lead for just six minutes and 56 seconds of a 59-54 victory at Butler in January. In the second meeting at the Nutter Center in February, Wright State led for less than five minutes while posting a 61-55 win! The Raiders finished the first game with a 10-0 scoring run and closed with a 9-0 run in the second meeting. FINISHING TOUCH: Butler ended the regular season the same way it began the 2004-05 campaign - with a three-game winning streak. The Bulldogs won six of their final nine games and closed with an 86-82 upset of defending Horizon League Tournament champ UIC. The victory was Butler's third straight at home, and it gave the Bulldogs a 10-4 record in Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs posted a 5-3 record in February. WIRE TO WIRE: Forward Brandon Polk opened Butler's game against UIC with a dunk and Butler held an advantage for the rest of the game! The Bulldogs stretched their lead to as many as 18 points in the first half, before settling for a 42-32 halftime lead. UIC did climb to within two points, 84-82, but two free throws by freshman A. J. Graves with seven seconds remaining closed the scoring. The victory ended UIC's four-game win streak against the Bulldogs. NAME GAME: Butler rode the career scoring performances of junior Brandon Polk and sophomore Brandon Crone to the upset of UIC. Polk hit six of six shots in the first half and scored 16 points to key Butler?s fast start. He added 11 more points in the second half and finished with a career-high 27 points. Crone hit six of six shots in the second half, while scoring 17 of his career-high 20 points. He hit a key three-point field goal and a pair of free throws in the final 2:40. Polk hit 10 of 14 shots in the game, while Crone notched seven of 11 field goal attempts. It was the first time Butler had two players score 20 or more points since last year's Horizon League Tournament victory over Youngstown State. ALL-LEAGUE: Junior Brandon Polk was named second team All-Horizon League and was picked to the league?s All-Newcomer Team by a vote of league coaches, sports information directors and media. He was the lone Butler player honored. Brandon Polk has scored in double-figures in 17 consecutive games. THREE WAY: Butler hit 23 three-point field goals in its final two regular season games. After shooting 69% (11-16) from the three-point arc in a win at Youngstown State, Butler closed the regular season by hitting 12 of 25 (48%) long range shots against UIC. It was the 10th time this season that the Bulldogs connected on at least 10 three-point field goals in a game. Butler is 9-1 when hitting 10 or more three-pointers in a game. Butler leads the Horizon League in three-point field goals (8.52). SIX HUNDRED POINTS: Appropriately numbered (3) Bruce Horan became only the second player in Butler basketball history to reach 200 career three-point field goals during Butler's victory over UIC. The 6-3 guard, who owns Butler's third-highest (96 in 2003-04) and fourth-highest (83 this season) single season totals for three-point field goals, scored his 200th three-point field goal with his second and final three-pointer against the Flames. He trails only former teammate Darnell Archey (217 three-pointers from 1999-2003) on Butler's career three-point field goal list. The top three players on Butler's all-time list for three-pointers (Archey, Horan and Brandon Miller, 2000-03) each attended New Castle Chrysler High School in Indiana. Bruce Horan is 4-6 (.667) from two-point range this season. SHARP SHOOTERS: Butler boasts the top field goal shooter and the top free throw shooter in the Horizon League! Junior Brandon Polk leads the league in field goal shooting with a .586 mark, while freshman A. J. Graves leads the league in free throw shooting with a .931 mark. PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior Brandon Polk was named co-Player of the Week in the Horizon League after scoring 24 points in Butler's win at Youngstown State and 27 in the Bulldogs' upset of UIC. Cedrick Banks of UIC, who had 39 points against Wright State and 28 against Butler, shared the league honor. BULLDOG BITS: *Butler was named one of the "100 Greatest College Basketball Programs of All Time" by Street & Smith's College Basketball Magazine. Three hundred and nine NCAA Division I schools were eligible for consideration by the specialty publication. *The Bulldogs lead the Horizon League in team free throw shooting (.740). Butler is second is field goal shooting (.456) and three-point field goal shooting (.375). *Butler leads the Horizon League and ranks third in the NCAA Division I in fewest turnovers (10.2 pg). *Junior Avery Sheets had four assists and one turnover against UIC. He leads the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.39), and he ranks fourth in the league in assists (4.07). *Junior Bruce Horan ranks second in the Horizon League in three-point field goals (3.07) and in three-point field goal shooting (.413). *Bruce Horan has hit at least one three-point field goal in 46 consecutive games. *Freshman A. J. Graves is bidding to become the third member of his family to lead the Horizon League in free throw shooting. His older brother, Andrew, led the league while playing at Butler in 1999-00, and older brother, (asst. coach) Matthew, was the league's top free throw shooter in 1995-96 and 1997-98! *A. J. Graves owns the eighth-highest single season scoring total for a Butler freshman with 295 points. He's four points shy of Jermaine Guice, 1990-91, in seventh place, nine points away from Wayne Burris, 1973-74, in sixth place and 12 points behind J. P. Brens, 1989-90, in fifth place. *Sophomore Brian Ligon suffered a knee injury at UW-Milwaukee, and he's sidelined for the remainder of the season. It's the second straight season that the 6-7 center has been sidelined by a knee injury. A LOOK BACK: Butler faced the unenviable task of playing a Horizon League Tournament game on a lower seeded team's home floor in the 2001 league championship. The top-seeded Bulldogs faced the fourth-seeded Raiders in the Nutter Center in the 2001 tournament semifinals, and for 30 minutes it looked like the ideal formula for an upset. Wright State grabbed a 30-26 halftime lead and Butler didn't overtake the home squad until midway through the second half. Forward Rylan Hainje put the Bulldogs in front, 40-39, with a lay-up and the Bulldogs held on, out-scoring the Raiders, 8-2, in the final two minutes. Current Butler assistant coach LaVall Jordan led all scorers in the game with 17 points, including 11 in the second half. Butler went on to win the league championship and advance to the NCAA Tournament. |
