A spot in Monday night’s finals is on the line when the Colonial Athletic Association meets the Horizon League.
VCU’s Rams will look to go from First Four to the finals. Spurned by critics across the land as a team unworthy of receiving an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, the Rams have reeled off five wins to advance to the school’s first ever appearance in the Final Four.
Butler will make its second consecutive appearance in the national semifinals of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball
Championship. Three players who were in Butler’s starting lineup in last year’s NCAA national championship game return this season. Current starters Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack, plus top reserve Ronald Nored, all were starters
against Duke in last year’s title game. Butler is the third team in NCAA Tournament history to beat a No. 1 seed before the Final Four in consecutive years, and the first two were seeded third or higher. UCLA beat No. 1 seeds in 2006 and 2007 as a No. 2 seed, while Duke turned in wins over a top-seeded team in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The Blue Devils were a No. 2 seed in 1988 and 1989 and a No. 3 seed in 1990.
Butler and Virginia Commonwealth are meeting for just the second time as basketball opponents and for the first time in more than 40 years. The Bulldogs won that first meeting, 99-97, at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Dec. 2, 1970.
Notes courtesy of vcuathletics.com and butlersports.com.
Former Butler stars from all eras reveling in title chase
After Final four berths, can we still call Butler, VCU cinderellas?
Houston turns into midmajor wonderland
VCU’s probable starters
5…..Juvonte Reddic….FR…..6’9″……225
12….Joey Rodriguez….SR…..5’10″….175
20….Bradford Burgess.JR…..6’6″……225
21….Jamie Skeen………SR…..6’9″…….240
50….Ed Nixon………….SR…..6’4″…….210
Probable Butler Starters
…………………………………………………………………..PPG….RPG
44 Andrew Smith 6-11 239 So. …………………………8.9…. 5.4
54 Matt Howard 6-8 230 Sr. ………………………….16.7…. 7.7
2 Shawn Vanzant 6-0 172 Sr. …………………………….8.1…. 3.1
1 Shelvin Mack 6-3 215 Jr. ……………………………….15.6 ….4.4
33 Chase Stigall 6-4 195 So. ………………………………4.0….. 1.7
| VCU’s Stats | Overall | Conf | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | 38 | 17 | ||
| FG made per game | 24.3 | 22.4 | ||
| FG attempts per game | 55.7 | 53.5 | ||
| FG Pct | 43.7 | 41.8 | ||
| 3PT made per game | 8.4 | 7.9 | ||
| 3PT attempts per game | 22.9 | 23.1 | ||
| 3PT Pct | 36.7 | 34.2 | ||
| FT made per game | 14.8 | 15.8 | ||
| FT attempt per game | 20.8 | 20.2 | ||
| FT Pct | 71.5 | 77.9 | ||
| Off rebounds per game | 10.9 | 10.4 | ||
| Def rebounds per game | 21.4 | 19.4 | ||
| Total rebounds per game | 32.3 | 29.8 | ||
| Assists per game | 14.5 | 13.1 | ||
| Turnovers per game | 11.3 | 10.5 | ||
| Steals per game | 8.4 | 8.8 | ||
| Blocks per game | 3.6 | 3.8 | ||
| Personal fouls per game | 18.2 | 17.5 | ||
| Points per game | 71.9 | 68.4 | ||
TEAM STATISTICS BU OPP -------------------------------------------------- SCORING................. 2596 2322 Points per game....... 72.1 64.5 Scoring margin........ +7.6 - FIELD GOALS-ATT......... 886-1999 803-1881 Field goal pct........ .443 .427 3 POINT FG-ATT.......... 272-766 220-674 3-point FG pct........ .355 .326 3-pt FG made per game. 7.6 6.1 FREE THROWS-ATT......... 552-759 496-742 Free throw pct........ .727 .668 F-Throws made per game 15.3 13.8 REBOUNDS................ 1248 1135 Rebounds per game..... 34.7 31.5 Rebounding margin..... +3.1 - ASSISTS................. 439 386 Assists per game...... 12.2 10.7 TURNOVERS............... 401 453 Turnovers per game.... 11.1 12.6 Turnover margin....... +1.4 - Assist/turnover ratio. 1.1 0.9 STEALS.................. 213 194 Steals per game....... 5.9 5.4 BLOCKS.................. 57 98 Blocks per game....... 1.6 2.7 ATTENDANCE.............. 100486 146249 Home games-Avg/Game... 14-7178 13-7785 Neutral site-Avg/Game. - 9-5005 SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT Total ------------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- BUTLER................... 1260 1295 41 - 2596 Opponents................ 1044 1225 53 - 2322
Going to come to down to pace for this game. If Butler can keep the pace to a medium level, I think their experience pays off.
Florida’s press bothered Butler a little last week. Interesting to see if the Bulldogs can adjust to VCU’s defense. The Rams hit 9 3s last week in the first half against Kansas. My guess, is VCU doesn’t hit that many for the game today.
Side note – Kansas lost the second game of a weekend for the second year in a row last weekend. A year ago, Northern Iowa beat the Jayhawks in the round of 32. In ’08 when KU won the title, Davidson was a Steph Curry 3 away from knocking of Kansas in the Elite Eight.
Great calls so far by you guys. Butler getting caught up in the fast pace and putting up some untimely shots quick in the possession. VCU’s full court pressure, or moreso their traps near halfcourt, really caushing the Bulldogs to make some bad decisions. When was the last time Skeen has missed a 3-point shot???
Butler had those couple of possessions early in the game where they broke the press in text book fashion only to miss a lay up and get an unfortunate turnover. They played at VCU’s pace and it looked like that was part of their game plan early.
Now, they have the pace to their liking.
Great point by Kerr – Butler is cutting off Rodriguez’s driving lanes. The Bulldogs are great at taking away dribble penetration.
too many turnovers…butler can play the comeback kid…but how many times?
Keep it going, Butler!
Rey,
I’m sure Skeen has missed a shot or two. It just seems as if he hits EVERYTHING.
Shaka Smart said in press conference that during media day, Brad Stevens mentioned that they were going to shoot a lot of open shots when they bust VCU’s press. I can see how that worked out in the long run. Hahn hits a couple; VCU is forced to overplay those passing lanes in the press now; a lot of fouls ensue. 20 FTs made for Butler.
Which brings me to this: where would you rank the 3-point line in a list of sports innovations? I swear that line is the scariest thing in the world to a team without a shooter and against teams with guys who stroke it.
Great question.
Probably the best pure innovation. Of course, football has increased scoring by making it illegal for defensive backs to breathe in coverage.
I was thinking about Stevens’s comments early in the game. You have to attack a press (like Kenny Smith reminded everyone) which means shooting. So it seemed like Butler was giving into VCU’s tempo, but they weren’t. The Bulldogs rarely gave the Rams any open -court layups. VCU hit 8 3s on the game. They started with 3 in the first five minutes. Then Butler started to settle in.
Greg Anthony made that point about Butler: they are comfortable playing poorly. Yeah, they rarely give an opponent a big run. They do a great job of moving from play to play and recognizing the value of each.
“So it seemed like Butler was giving into VCU’s tempo, but they weren’t. The Bulldogs rarely gave the Rams any open -court layups” …which highlights the importance of that line. It’s taken something that was probably deadly in its day and now made it a hinderance of sorts. So you take away layups but now a team comes out and kills with set, open 3s. I hate this game. It’s the biggest crapshoot at times.
I love the way Butler adjusts. VCU comes out and looks like they were going for another barrage of 3s. Butler gets to the media timeout, resets everything takes VCU out of their rhythm
Where is that stat? The number for disrupting the opponent’s momentum.
Is it safe to say Jamie Skeen earned himself a spot in the NBA over the last 3 weeks?
I have thought this before and don’t know why I have mentioned it: Shawn Vanzant might be the most under-rated player in the country. He is probably the best on the ball defender in the country and last night he made a pair of great offensive plays.
Casey … absolutely correct …. Skeen was really a man among boys out there and just about single-handedly kept VCU in there. Both an inside and outside threat … big body.
Hahn, Butler’s lefty guard, had his moments out there too. I’m surprised he didn’t play more. He was clutch in the regional final too.
Butler has a deceptively well-rounded, versatile team.
Ya don’t say.
Wait… Butler has a well-rounded team??? Here I thought the back to back Final Fours were a fluke. 🙂
Ha! Okay … Capt Obvious moment for me. You caught me.