Butler Faces Louisville In New KFC Yum! Center
OPENING NIGHT: Butler will make its first
visit to Louisville in more than three decades when it heads south
to face the Cardinals in the first game in the new KFC Yum! Center
on Tuesday, Nov. 16. The non-league contest, which will be
nationally-televised on ESPN, is scheduled for an 8 p.m. (ET)
tip-off. Butler successfully opened the 2010-11 season at
home on Saturday (Nov. 13) with an 83-54 victory over NAIA foe
Marian. It was the Bulldogs’ fifth consecutive
season-opening victory. Louisville, coming off a 20-13
campaign, will be making its 2010-11 debut. Butler is making
its first visit to Louisville since 1972, when the Cardinals rolled
up a 90-67 decision. The two teams will meet again next
season at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs, who
will return to Indianapolis to host Ball State on Saturday (Nov.
20), won their final nine road games a year
ago.
Butler was 12-1 on the road last season.
FAMILIAR FACES: Three players who lined up
for the opening tip of last spring’s NCAA National
Championship game against Duke headline this year’s Butler
squad. Senior Matt Howard and junior Shelvin
Mack started every Butler game last season, while junior
Ronald Nored started all but five games. Howard was the
team’s second-leading rebounder (5.2) and third leading
scorer (11.6) last season, 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 played in all 38 games a year ago, while
junior Garrett Butcher saw action in 32 contests.
Butler returns 11 letterwinners from last year’s 33-5
team.
EARLY RECOGNITION: Butler, ranked No. 2 in
the final ESPN/USA Today national poll a year ago, opened the
2010-11 season with a No. 17 ranking in the Associated Press (A.P.)
preseason poll and a No. 18 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today preseason
poll. The Bulldogs have been nationally-ranked in each of the
past four seasons.
Butler began 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.
GRAND OPENING: All 14 Butler players saw
action in the game and 12 cracked the scoring column in
Butler’s season-opening victory over Marian. The
Bulldogs took command with a 26-9 scoring run in the first 13
minutes of the first half, and the home squad stretched the lead to
as many as 32 points in the second half. None of the Bulldogs
played more than 28 minutes in the game, and only four Butler
players saw as many as 20 minutes of action. It was the
fourth consecutive season-opening victory under head coach Brad
Stevens.
BACKCOURT LEADER: Junior Shelvin Mack
started strongly in Butler’s 2010-11 debut, and he wound up
leading all scorers in the game with 20 points. Mack scored
13 points in the first half on six of 10 shooting from the
floor. He wound up hitting nine of 14 shots in the game,
including two of four from beyond the three-point arc. It was
the 20th time in his Butler career that Mack has topped the
Bulldogs in scoring.
Shelvin Mack has scored 20 or more points in 13 career
games.
PRESEASON HONORS: 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.
FIRST DEFENSE: Butler picked up where it
left off last spring with a solid performance at the defensive end
of the floor in its season-opener. The Bulldogs forced 16
turnovers and limited Marian to 42% shooting, while yielding just
54 points. Last spring, Butler held five of six NCAA
Tournament opponents below 60 points.
Butler was 20-0 in 2009-10 when holding its opponent below 60
points.
BENCH MARK: The Bulldogs picked up 40 bench
points in their win over Marian. Sophomore Andrew Smith came off
the bench with a career-high 10 points in 15 minutes, while
freshmen Khyle Marshall added nine points in 14 minutes.
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, who had 12
points against Hanover, 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 has moved
into 15th place on Butler’s all-time scoring list with 1,337
career points. He trails Rylan Hainje (1998-2002) in 14th
place on the all-time list by 51 points. Howard needs 148
points to reach the “Top 10” in all-time scoring at
Butler.
BULLDOG BITS:
•Butler was 1-1 against teams from the Big East in
2009-10. The Bulldogs dropped a 72-65 decision to #15/13
Georgetown in the Jimmy V. Classic at Madison Square Garden, before
defeating #4 Syracuse, 63-59 in the “Sweet 16” of the
NCAA Tournament.
•Senior Matt Howard, who had a game-high seven rebounds
against Marian, has moved into 13th place on Butler’s
all-time rebounding list with 606 career rebounds. He’s
19 rebounds behind J. P. Brens (1989-93) in the No. 12
position.
•Matt Howard, who had six points against Marian, has scored
in 105 consecutive Butler games, every game of his collegiate
career.
•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 Shelvin Mack will be playing in his home state for
the first time in his Butler career. Mack, from Lexington,
Ky., attended Bryan Station High School, and he was a two-year
All-State performer and a member of the Kentucky All-Star Team,
which faced Indiana during the summer.
•Shelvin Mack is closing in on becoming the 33rd Butler
player to reach 1,000 career points. Mack enters the
Louisville contest with 938 career tallies.
•Shelvin Mack has posted 131 career three-point field
goals. He’s 27 three-pointers behind Darrin Fitzgerald
(1986-87) in 10th place on Butler’s all-time list for
three-point field goals.
•The Bulldogs are 29-4 when Shelvin Mack scores at least 14
points and 18-2 when he leads the team in scoring.
•Junior guard Ronald Nored had four steals in Butler’s
season-opener, one shy of his career-high set against both
Valparaiso and Syracuse last year. Nored led the Bulldogs in
steals (67) last year.
•Junior Garrett Butcher made his first collegiate start in
Butler’s season-opener against Marian. Butcher, who had
off-season surgery on both knees, played in 64 games in his first
two seasons with the Bulldogs.
•Butler’s starters were 5-9 (.556) from beyond the
three-point arc against Marian.
•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.
