Butler Bulldogs 0-0 (0-0) AT Drake Bulldogs 0-0 (0-0)

Are you ready!?!?!??!? How many times do we get the opportunity to watch a big program come into the Knapp Center that is not from the state of Iowa? Thanks to ESPN Bracketbusters and a hell of a season by Drake last year, we got an automatic followup at our house with (after Gonzaga of course) probably the strongest mid-major program of this decade. This is a landmark game for the program.

If you recall from last year, Drake traveled to Hinkle Fieldhouse, and edged Butler by 7 on national TV. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, just pop in the movie “Hoosiers” and watch the last twenty minutes... but, just imagine that there’s a three point line on the court, Jimmy Chitwood is a lot more tan and goes by the name “Josh Young”, and Gene Hackman is somehow the son of Tom Davis. That's pretty much how it went down.

To bring us back to earth, the timing of this game could actually be no worse. In addition to merely being the first regular season game of the year, we’re barely three weeks into the Phelps regime and we already have to match up against a team that is most definitely going to see post-season play. I discussed the quality of play we’ve seen from Drake this year in previous posts, so you can see the cause for concern.

Still, I am absolutely jacked about this game. Drake is not going to be close to favored, but I see a real opportunity if they can do the following:

• Rattle the Newbies. Since Butler graduated nearly their whole starting lineup, they’ve got a lot of diaper dandies as Dickie V would say. But they’re all extremely talented and they were able to recruit them away from bigger schools. A key I see that has to work Drake’s way is that some of their youngsters are going to have to have trouble dealing with the pressure environment. The Knapp has to be loud and if some of Butler’s freshmen get rattled because of it, they lose a lot of that significant edge they hold over the Drakies.
• Hold Our Own Inside. Matt Howard is an absolute beast inside, both offering a great scoring threat and dominating both sets of boards. He is going to make the interior very tough for us, and in all reality, we’re overmatched against him. Bucky Cox and Heemskerk have to make him work to get his points and they have to rebound the basketball well. Keeping Howard (and even Willie Veasley) off the glass will be critical. If Cox can get some matchups where he can face up on him – a big opportunity exists for him to use his quicks to get Howard in foul trouble. Unless Howard plays grossly unlike himself, I think he’s going to pose a significant threat all game long.
• Extend the 3-2. The other end of the defense the Bulldogs have been playing is critical as well. While Butler graduated all of their 3 PT shooters from last year, they still have a significant amount of sharpshooters, headed by freshmen sensation Shelvin Mack (averaged 13.5 in their exhibition games and went 4-6 from 3PT in the last game). They hit 15 threes in their first exhibition game. While that was against Oakland City, if we leave them open, they will hit their shots.

That’s what I think. I don’t even think how Drake does on offense is as significant as how they defend Butler. I’m fully expecting them to struggle on O… they have already this year, and Butler has always been a strong defensive team, so I don’t expect Drake to go out and score in the high 70’s. It’s going to come down to how well they play defensively and what kind of easy opportunities they give themselves. Butler is real young, hopefully that works against them. If Josh Young, Bucky Cox, and company can step up and make some big shots, I think we could have a heck of a game on our hands. If not, well… expect a 20+ point victory for the bad guys.

Then again, I could be completely wrong. Either way, hoping to see a big crowd at West End...