Bulldogs Open 2010-11 Season Against Marian
STARTING BLOCK: Butler will tip-off the
2010-11 season and start a string of five games in 14 days when it
hosts Marian on Saturday, Nov. 13. The season-opener at
Hinkle Fieldhouse will start at 2 p.m. (ET) and will be preceded by
Butler’s unveiling of its 2010 Final Four banner. The
Bulldogs, who return three starters from last year’s
record-setting club which advanced to the NCAA Division I National
Championship game, will be opening the season at home for the
second straight year. Butler defeated Davidson, 73-62, in
last year’s season-opener in front of a crowd of 6,713.
The Bulldogs will be playing Marian for the first time in 30 years
and for just the second time ever. The Knights won the first
meeting, 58-56, in 1980. Butler’s busy early schedule
will continue with a game at Louisville on Tuesday (Nov. 16) and a
home game against Ball State on Saturday (Nov. 20). The
Bulldogs will travel to Siena for a game on Tuesday, Nov. 23, and
then return home to close the five-game stretch against Evansville
on Saturday, Nov.
27.
Butler is 3-0 in season-openers under head coach Brad
Stevens.
FAMILIAR FACES: Butler will have three
players who lined up at the opening tip of last spring’s NCAA
National Championship game against Duke in the line-up for this
year’s season-opener against Marian. Senior
Matt Howard and juniors Shelvin Mack and Ronald
Nored each started against Duke and will be three key players on
this year’s Butler squad. Howard was Butler’s
second-leading rebounder (5.2) and third leading scorer
(11.6) last year, while Mack finished as the team’s
second-leading scorer (14.1). Nored led the Bulldogs in
assists (3.6) and steals (1.8) in 2009-10. Seniors Shawn
Vanzant and Zach Hahn and sophomore Andrew Smith also saw action
against Duke last spring.
Butler returns 11 letterwinners from last year’s 33-5
team.
HOME WORK: The Bulldogs were 15-0 in Hinkle
Fieldhouse last year, Butler’s first unbeaten home record
since 2002-03. Butler is 30-2 at home over the past two
seasons, and the Bulldogs are 44-3 in Hinkle Fieldhouse in three
seasons under head coach Brad Stevens.
EARLY RECOGNITION: Butler, ranked No. 2
in the final ESPN/USA Today national poll a year ago, will open the
2010-11 season as the No. 17 ranked team in the Associated Press
(A.P.) preseason poll and with a No. 18 ranking in the ESPN/USA
Today preseason poll. The Bulldogs have been ranked in the
“Top 25” nationally in each of the past four
seasons.
Butler will begin the season as a “Top 25” team for
the second consecutive year and for the second time in school
history.
TOP DOGS: Butler was ranked first in the
initial CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. The
Bulldogs received 16 first place votes and edged Gonzaga for the
top spot. Butler was ranked No. 1 in the final
CollegeInsider.com poll last season.
PRESEASON HONORS: Butler junior Shelvin Mack
has already been recognized on several preseason All-America
teams. Mack was chosen first team All-America, along with
Kyle Singler of Duke, Harrison Barnes of North Carolina, Jared
Sullinger of Ohio State and Jacob Pullen of Kansas State, by Fox
Sports.com, and he was named honorable mention All-America by the
Associated Press. The 6-3 Butler guard also was ranked fourth
among top 2010-11 point guards and combo guards by Gary Parrish of
CBS Sports.com, and he was named to the John Wooden Award 2010-11
Preseason Top 50 list.
FINAL TUNE-UP: Butler closed out its
preseason exhibition slate with a victory over Hanover, 80-41, on
Thursday, Nov. 4. The Bulldogs scored the first five points
of the game and pulled away to a 24-6 lead in the first seven
minutes. Butler led at halftime, 45-21, and the visiting
Panthers never got closer than 22 points in the final 20
minutes. Butler head coach Brad Stevens used his entire
roster in the game, and twelve different Bulldogs played at least
10 minutes. Junior Shelvin Mack led the Bulldogs with a
game-high 13 points, while senior Matt Howard added a double-double
with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The win came five days after
Butler defeated Florida Southern, 90-70, in its first preseason
contest.
Butler was 20-0 in 2009-10 when holding its opponent below 60
points.
BENCH MARK: The Bulldogs picked up a pair of
notable reserve performances from freshmen Khyle Marshall and Erik
Fromm against Hanover. Marshall came off the bench and posted
11 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots in 18 minutes
against the Panthers, while Fromm had eight points and four
rebounds in 16 minutes. Marshall had gone scoreless in
Butler’s first exhibition game, while Fromm had two points in
the opener.
SHARP SHOOTING: Senior Zach Hahn came off
the bench and hit all four three-point field goals that he
attempted in Butler’s two exhibition games. Hahn, who
led the Bulldogs in three-point field goal shooting a year ago, hit
three of three long-range shots against Florida Southern and his
lone attempt against Hanover.
EXHIBITION LEADER: Senior Matt Howard
averaged 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in Butler’s two
exhibition wins. His 19 points against Florida Southern were
the most by a Butler player in the two exhibition tests, as were
his 10 rebounds against Hanover. The 6-8 forward shot .632
(12-19) from the field and .778 (7-9) from the free throw line in
the two games. Howard, who averaged just 22 minutes per game
in the two contests, was the lone Bulldog to score in
double-figures in each of the two exhibition games.
SCORING WATCH: Senior Matt Howard enters his
final season in 17th place on Butler’s all-time scoring list
with 1,331 career points. He’s just three points behind
Tom Bowman (1960-63) and Thomas Jackson (1998-2002) in a tie for
15th place on the all-time list. Howard needs 154 points to
reach the “Top 10” in all-time scoring at Butler.
BULLDOG BITS:
•Butler head coach Brad Stevens used two different starting
lineups during the preseason exhibition season. Seniors Matt Howard
and Shawn Vanzant and juniors Ronald Nored and Shelvin Mack started
both exhibition games for the Bulldogs, while sophomore Andrew
Smith started against Florida Southern and junior Garrett Butcher
was given the starting nod against Hanover.
•Senior Matt Howard and junior Shelvin Mack have been in the
starting lineup in each of Butler’s past two
season-openers. Junior Ronald Nored was a starter in
Butler’s season-opening game at Drake two years ago, but came
off the bench in last year’s opener against Davidson.
•The Bulldogs boast six players with at least 60 career games
played, led by senior Matt Howard with 104 games in three
seasons. Senior Zach Hahn has played in 102 games, senior
Shawn Vanzant has 100, juniors Shelvin Mack and Ronald Nored each
have played in 70 and junior Garrett Butcher has played in
64. Howard has 96 career starts.
•Butler’s Matt Howard is one of 30 candidates nominated
for the 2010-11 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award is
presented to one senior who has shown notable achievement in four
areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and
competition.
•Junior Ronald Nored scored 14 points against Florida Southern
in Butler’s first exhibition game. The Butler
point-guard only had two games with more than 14 points all of last
season. Nored, who shot .196 from the three-point arc last
year, hit both of his three-point field goal attempts against the
Moccasins.
•Senior Shawn Vanzant, who started Butler’s first four
games last season, had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists
as a starter against Florida Southern. He added five points,
four rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes against Hanover.
•The Bulldogs had 11 players average at least 10 minutes in
Butler’s two exhibition games. Junior Shelvin Mack led
the Bulldogs in minutes played (24.0) in the two games, while
Ronald Nored averaged 23.0 minutes in the two contests.
•Shelvin Mack enters the 2010-11 season with 129 career
three-point field goals. He’s 29 three-pointers behind
Darrin Fitzgerald (1986-87) in 10th place on Butler’s
all-time list for three-point field goals.
•The Bulldogs are 28-4 when Shelvin Mack scores at least 14
points and 17-2 when he leads the team in scoring.
•Butler has won its last 23 games when hitting at least nine
three-point field goals. The Bulldogs are 40-1 under head
coach Brad Stevens when hitting nine or more three-pointers.
•Butler is one of just three NCAA Division I schools to win at
least 25 games in each of the last four seasons. The other
two are Kansas and BYU.
•Butler head coach Brad Stevens landed four recruits on the
first day of the NCAA’s fall signing period. Joining
the Bulldogs’ 2011-12 freshman class were 6-4 Roosevelt Jones
of O’Fallon, Ill., 6-1 Jackson Aldridge of Sydney, Australia,
6-6 Andy Smeathers of Bargersville (Center Grove H.S.) and 6-9
Kameron Woods of Louisville, Ky. (Eastern H.S.). Jones
averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds for 30-4 O’Fallon last
year, while Aldridge was a gold medal-winning point-guard on
Australia’s U18 team. Smeathers, averaged 14 points for
17-4 Center Grove, while Woods averaged 7.0 points and 7.0 rebounds
at Eastern, one of the top prep teams in Kentucky.
