Buzzer Beater Lifts Butler Over Cleveland State

[ford]

Watched the 2nd half on ESPNU. After trailing the whole half, BU Knocked down a 3 to beat Cleveland St on the road. This will turn out to be a big win for butler, and they're 6-0 right now. Granted they're not as good as last year, but looks like they will still be a solid RPI game for us.

Knowing Matt Howard was almost X bound, I tend to watch him a lot during their games, and he is a really fundamentally sound player, always in position, good rebounder, defender, sets good screens and is active off them, and has some nice post moves. Always good to see former recruits do well, validates what we already know about Miller and the staff's recruiting prowess.

[SpeX]

Saw the tail end of this game on the U as well. Although Butler was down the whole 2nd half (even with 5 seconds remaining), I still had a strong feeling they would pull it out.

Really low scoring game. We'll probably have a defensive battle, offensive struggle on our hands in a few weeks when they visit Cintas. Good RPI game and nice to have on the schedule.

[Swifty]

Knowing Matt Howard was almost X bound, I tend to watch him a lot during their games, and he is a really fundamentally sound player, always in position, good rebounder, defender, sets good screens and is active off them, and has some nice post moves. Always good to see former recruits do well, validates what we already know about Miller and the staff's recruiting prowess.

Howard is very good, but the guy I wish we had snagged to most is Teague at Wake Forest. Kid is playing spectacular right now. With him playing point we would be a top 10 team.

[American X]

1) When Xavier plays Butler I will simply be concerned with winning against a good team during a very tough stretch and think about the RPI implications about two months later.

2) Why do smaller conferences plays conference games so early?

[AdamtheFlyer]

1) When Xavier plays Butler I will simply be concerned with winning against a good team during a very tough stretch and think about the RPI implications about two months later.

2) Why do smaller conferences plays conference games so early?

It might have something to do with them generally ending their season earlier than larger conferences.

[danaandvictory]

It might have something to do with them generally ending their season earlier than larger conferences.

Plus they have to schedule an open weekend in February for the Bracket Buster (plus travel time).

[Snipe]

Great game by Butler. I always root for them when I get to watch them. They are going to give us a game at the Tas. I won't be rooting for them then.

[The Artist]

Great game by Butler. I always root for them when I get to watch them. They are going to give us a game at the Tas. I won't be rooting for them then.

We know, Snipe, they're not UD or UC.

[AdamtheFlyer]

Plus they have to schedule an open weekend in February for the Bracket Buster (plus travel time).

Travel time plays a role in how the schedule the league games. Teams have travel partners and generally play a Thursday/Saturday schedule. So when Wright State plays at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday, Detroit plays at UW-Green Bay. On Saturday WSU and UDM switch cities.

But I can tell you for a fact that the main reason for the early league games has to do with ending the regular season early. That was in place before Bracket Busters was around. To make room they simply took away one of the two one game weeks a team had when they played their travel partner and moved it to a three game week with the travel partner game on a Tuesday.

I don't know if that schedule is universal throughout the Horizon League anymore, but that was the intention at the time the Bracket Busters expanded to take every team in the conference.

[nuts4xu]

It would make sense if they started their conference schedule a little early, like the week of Christmas. But this is barely the beginning of December and Butler still has non con games to play.

It doesn't make sense to me to sprinkle conference games throughout the year like they don't matter.

[AdamtheFlyer]

It would make sense if they started their conference schedule a little early, like the week of Christmas. But this is barely the beginning of December and Butler still has non con games to play.

It doesn't make sense to me to sprinkle conference games throughout the year like they don't matter.

It's only two games. I don't see how it's different than teams scheduling OOC games in the middle of conference season. There is no set schedule that teams and leagues have to follow. The HL has an 18 games season and has to get it in by the last day of February. They don't play over the holidays because the HL doesn't want to force teams to bus and be gone for 3-4 days at a time. They want to give each school the option of how to deal with the holidays.

HL teams generally only fly a couple times a season, and almost never in league play. It's far from a perfect schedule, but in a cash strapped league like the HL, it's what works best.