The Butler men’s basketball team will be facing Atlantic 10 Conference competition for the first time this season without junior guard Chrishawn Hopkins.

Hopkins, who was dismissed from the team on Wednesday, Sept. 12, was expected to grow into more of a leadership role and be a force on the court for the Bulldogs this season.

With the loss of Hopkins, Butler loses a starter from last year’s squad.

The shooting guard played in all 37 contests last season, starting 24 of them. He averaged 9.1 points per game, good enough for third on the team.

The question now is: where does Butler go from here?

If this year’s team could afford to lose a player at any position, it would be in the backcourt. The 2012-13 version of the Bulldogs features plenty of backcourt depth. Stevens now will have an easier time giving players the minutes they need to improve.

Senior transfer Rotnei Clarke is already penciled in as the starter at point guard, replacing Ronald Nored. Hopkins probably would have started at the shooting guard position, but that spot is now vacant.

A platoon of players will step into that role for the team this season.

Sophomore guard Jackson Aldridge figures to play a more prominent role in the season. His playing time decreased down the stretch last season, but he should see some minutes early on.

Senior Chase Stigall and sophomores Elliott Kampen and Alex Barlow could also fight for time.

Stigall is a reliable defender and also is very familiar with Stevens’ offensive and defensive systems, having played in them for three years.

Kampen and Barlow, both walk-ons last season, saw important minutes down the stretch last year, leading me to believe that Stevens trusts them in important situations.

Butler’s three newcomers, Kellen Dunham, Devontae Morgan and Chris Harrison-Docks, all could see time at Hopkins’ position as well.

The 6’6” Dunham might see the most. While only a freshman, he proved himself a good shooter in his high school career.

Pair Dunham’s shooting skills with those of Clarke, and Butler could light up some Atlantic 10 scoreboards this season.

However, Dunham will need to show he is a capable defender as well, something not easily learned in Stevens’ complex system.

The rest of the starting lineup seems fairly predictable.

Senior Andrew Smith will anchor the Bulldogs in the paint.

Junior Khyle Marshall will bring athleticism to court, something the team will be lacking with the loss of Hopkins, and sophomore Roosevelt Jones looks to build off a strong freshman season.

Jones has an interesting skill set. While not the best shooter, he proved last year that he has the strength and stamina to play in the paint, as well as the athleticism and ball-handling skills to run the offense from time to time.

Whichever direction Stevens and the team decide to go, replacing Hopkins will not be easy, especially when joining one of the best college basketball conferences in the country this season.

Some might think the team will play better without Hopkins. They may say that the junior never truly fit into the offensive system the team was trying to run.

But that ability to create shots for himself was what made him so valuable to the program.

Though there’s still a month until practice officially starts, the Butler basketball team is making headlines.

The Butler men’s basketball team pushed its winning streak to three games last night by defeating Loyola of Chicago 63-57.

The victory moved the Bulldogs (16-12, 10-6) past Detroit and into third place in the Horizon League.

Four Butler players finished in double-digits. Sophomore guard Chrishawn Hopkins led the way with 13 points and six
rebounds.

Loyola junior forward Ben Averkamp led all scorers with 23 points and six rebounds for the Ramblers (6-19, 1-14).

The Bulldogs started strong, shooting 58 percent from the field on their way to a 13-point lead— the largest of the game— with 2:27 left in the opening half.

Butler went cold from that point on, allowing the Ramblers to come back and tie the game at 44 with 7:52 to play.

“I thought [Loyola’s] 6-0 run at the end of the [first] half really hurt us,” coach Brad Stevens said. “Then I thought we were too passive the first 10 minutes of the second half.

“I think your aggression leads to better offensive play, and I didn’t think we were the more aggressive team at that moment.”

Foul shots made by junior center Andrew Smith and Hopkins gave Butler a 47-44 advantage.

Sophomore forward Khyle Marshall, who scored 12 points, added two key baskets that brought the momentum back to the Bulldogs, who held on to the lead for the remainder of the game.

“[Marshall] makes [passing to him] easy just because he’s ridiculously athletic,” senior guard Ronald Nored said. “So if you just throw it anywhere close to the rim, he’s probably going to dunk it.

“He also does a good job of finding spots where he can be open.”

Nored finished the contest with nine assists—a game-high.

Aside from Averkamp, the Ramblers struggled to score.

Loyola’s other four starters tallied 24 points combined and the team shot 22.2 percent from beyond the arc.

The Bulldogs also shot nearly 10 percent better from the field than the Ramblers.

“I told our guys in the locker room that it’s hard to win a basketball game,” Stevens said, “and you always need to remember that, understand that and come into the game thinking that.”

Prior to taking on Loyola, Butler closed its two-game Ohio road trip with a key victory over then-Horizon League leading Cleveland State.

Freshman forward Roosevelt Jones’ career high 17 points led the way in the Bulldogs’ 52-49 victory over the Vikings (20-6, 10-4).

Cleveland State freshman forward Anton Grady led the Vikings with 18 points and 13 rebounds on his way to a double-double, but it was not enough to overcome stifling defense by the Bulldogs (15-12, 9-6).

Butler held a 28-18 lead at halftime, in large part to Cleveland State’s 24.1 percent shooting from the field.

The Vikings’ three-point shooting kept them in it, as the team shot 5-for-10 from beyond the arc in the second half after not making a single three-point field goal in the first half.

The Vikings tied the game at 34 with 12:55 remaining. The teams then exchanged the lead six times before the end of the contest.

With the game tied at 49 and with 1:39 remaining in the game, Hopkins hit a jump shot that would give Butler the lead for good.

Marshall returned for the Bulldogs after a two-game absence due to concussion-like symptoms. He scored 12 points and added eight rebounds off the bench.

On Thursday night, Butler defeated Youngstown State 68-59 to start its road trip on the right foot.

Hopkins led the Bulldogs with 19 points, scoring 13 in the second half to help suppress a comeback by the Penguins (14-11, 9-6).

Butler led by as many as 14 points early in the second half, only to have Youngstown State cut the lead to four points with about 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Freshman guard Jackson Aldridge tied his career high of 15 points while going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs will continue their schedule at home on Saturday against Indiana State at 2 p.m.

Two weekends ago, the Butler men’s basketball team won two games on a road trip to Chicago. The squad hoped to do the same in Wisconsin last weekend.

That did not happen.

The Bulldogs (12-11, 6-5) lost at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Green Bay over the weekend, dropping to just a game over .500 in the process.

Saturday night in Green Bay, Butler freshman forward Roosevelt Jones tied a career high with 16 points, but the Bulldogs’ defense could not contain the Phoenix (9-12, 5-6) in an 80-68 loss.

Butler had allowed 80 points just one other time this season, an 80-77 overtime loss to Evansville on Nov. 12.

Green Bay’s top performer was junior center Brennan Cougill, who finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs hung with the Phoenix for the first half and trailed 33-32 at the break.

The second half was a different story for Butler, as the Bulldogs started slow and could not topple Green Bay.

In addition to leading the team in points, Jones also recorded a team-high eight rebounds for the Bulldogs.

”[Jones] is really good,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said. “He’s a hard-nosed, competitive kid.”

Senior guard Ronald Nored was the only other starter in double figures for Butler, finishing with 13 points. He also had another perfect showing from the free throw line, draining all six of his attempts.

Nored said he tries to play hard, smart and focused basketball, which rubs off on his teammates.

”Ron has been a huge hand in the last four years, more than statistics show,” Stevens said.

The Bulldogs also received a combined 27 points off the bench from sophomore guard Chrishawn Hopkins, sophomore forward Erik Fromm, freshman guard Jackson Aldridge and freshman forward Kameron Woods.

In the end, those efforts were not enough to stop Green Bay, who received 19 points from sophomore center Alec Brown and 14 points from freshman guard Keifer Sykes in addition to the 21 points from Cougill.

The Bulldogs continued to struggle from beyond the arc, shooting 4 of 13, while the Phoenix made seven of their 14 3-point attempts.

On Thursday night, junior center Andrew Smith led the Bulldogs with 11 points in a 53-42 loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The Panthers (14-8, 7-3) were led by junior forward James Haarsma’s game-high 12 points and senior guard Ryan Allen’s nine.

Butler struggled to sink shots throughout the contest, shooting just 19.2 percent from the field in the second half and 27.6 percent for the game.

Beyond the arc, the Bulldogs made only one 3-point basket in 17 attempts.

Both scrappy and sloppy play were seen in the Horizon League matchup, as the teams totaled 27 turnovers and 34 fouls.

Butler received quality minutes from freshman Elliot Kampen, who finished with five points and the Bulldogs’ lone 3-point basket.

“It wasn’t enough to get the win, so I have to play harder,” Kampen said.

Butler will return to Hinkle Fieldhouse tomorrow night against the Wright State Raiders (11-12, 6-5) before squaring off with the Detroit Titans (12-11, 6-5) at Hinkle Saturday afternoon.

Butler might be back on track.

After two games controlled throughout by its opponent, the Butler men’s basketball team turned the tables Sunday.

Junior center Andrew Smith scored 20 points, two shy of his career-high, to lead the Bulldogs to a 71-55 victory over Youngstown State at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The win moved Butler (10-9, 4-3) into a tie for fourth place in the Horizon League standings.  The Bulldogs begin a pivotal four-game road trip Thursday when they visit Illinois-Chicago.

After enduring a mostly uncompetitive loss to Detroit and a failed rally against Cleveland State, Butler coach Brad Stevens watched his young team hold a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half.

“No use using youth as an excuse,” Stevens said. “Today was better.  We only played about three bad minutes.”

The Bulldogs’ bench registered a strong showing.  Freshman forward-center Kameron Woods had 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Freshman guard Jackson Aldridge scored 10 points, and sophomore guard Chrishawn Hopkins added six points and four assists without committing a turnover.

“We can play as hard as the first unit can,” Woods said. “I try to do whatever I can. We try to play really aggressive.”

The Penguins (9-8, 4-3) could not match Butler’s depth.  Youngstown State reserves totaled just four points. Senior forward Ashen Ward led the team with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting.

Butler established control by repeatedly going inside against the smaller Penguins.  A trio of big men –Smith, Woods and sophomore forward Khyle Marshall — combined for 23 points in the first half as Butler raced to a 34-27 lead at the intermission.  The Bulldogs earned 22 of those points in the paint.

“Our team’s found a better flow on the offensive side,” said Smith, who made 7-of-13 field goals.

Butler started the contest 0-of-9 from 3 before Hopkins drained a look in the right corner off of crisp ball rotation.  The shot gave the Bulldogs a 32-23 lead with 4:28 left in the first half.

Youngstown State relied mostly on perimeter offense.  It knocked down six of its first 10 3-point tries but fell behind by as many as 20 in the second half when the shots stopped falling.

“They ran us off the 3-point line,” coach Jerry Slocum said. “They’re as good defensively as ever.”

The Penguins helped out by giving the ball away nine times in the first 20 minutes while Butler committed just one turnover in that stretch.

“Our biggest problem was we turned the ball over,” Slocum said. “Defense led to extra offense for them.”

Senior point guard Ronald Nored added seven points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Butler.  He had three assists in the first five minutes of the second half, including two dishes to Smith underneath the basket.

Youngstown State checked the 6-foot-11 Smith with 6-7 junior center Damian Eargle. Smith capitalized by approaching his career-best 22-point outing in a Jan. 7, 2011 win against Cleveland State.

“He can run really well,” Stevens said.  “He can finish and move.  Today he played really active to the ball.”

Butler shot 15-of-20 from the line after missing 17 of 42 tries Friday.

“We’ve been focusing on free throws,” said Smith, a perfect 6-for-6.  “We’ve just got to keep that up.”

The Bulldogs beat Youngstown State 38-25 on the glass and 17-4 in second-chance points.  They shot 44.6 percent from the floor to the Penguins’ 42 percent.

Woods defended, rebounded and scored at the rim in an impressive 25-minute outing.

“He’s had many great moments as a freshman,” Stevens said. “He’s got a high ceiling.”

In one sequence, Woods leaped to pull in a miss by Smith and give Butler a new shot clock.  Later in the possession, Woods took a pass in the left corner and drove to his right around Penguins sophomore forward Josh Chojnacki all the way to the basket. The lay-in provided the Bulldogs their first double-digit lead at 29-19 with 6:22 remaining in the first half.

Butler never looked back.

“I guard a lot of different positions,” Woods said.  “Early in the season I was kind of walking through the motions [on offense].  Now I’ve learned the system a lot better.”

The Bulldogs will try to continue Sunday’s success on the road before returning home Feb. 2 to face Wright State.

Butler University has gone down under. But not in a bad way.

This fall, freshman basketball recruit Jackson Aldridge arrived on campus from Sydney, Australia.

He said a connection to coach Brad Stevens and a pivotal win helped him get on the U.S. radar.

“My national team coach back in Australia knew Brad briefly,” Aldridge said. “Then my national team played a tournament in Germany, and we knocked America out. I ended up getting named to the All-Star Five in the tournament, and the recruiting really picked up from there.”

Jackson was not only courted by Butler. He also received interest from Creighton, Washington State, Michigan and Marquette, among others.

Unlike what some might believe, he committed before Butler’s improbable run of back-to-back appearances in national championships.

Aldridge said his decision to attend Butler over the other interested schools was “not even close.”

“I knew Coach Stevens was legitimate and cared not just about basketball but for you as an individual as well,” Aldridge said.

The atmosphere is not the only thing that is different for the Aussie.

The style of play typically differs in the United States compared to the rest of the world, according to Aldridge.

Some of this is a direct result of different rules being used internationally, such as FIBA—a French acronym that translates to International Basketball Federation.

Another difference, according to Aldridge, involves the individuals he faces on the court here.

Photo by Maria Porter

“There are some really talented individuals here,” Aldridge said. “Everyone is much more athletic. The main difference is the body type of the guys playing.”

Even with the enlarged competition, Aldridge is not afraid to utilize a dribble-drive to attack the interior of the defense on his way to the basket. He credits this fearless attitude to growing up playing rugby, usually against bigger individuals.

The different style of play initially created a small learning curve to a new ritual because “every night you have to be back up the next day,” he said.

However, the biggest adjustment in leaving Australia to come stateside has nothing to do with basketball.

“Obviously, I moved away from my family and friends, and it has been hard to adjust,” he said.

When asked about his future and whether he would move back to Australia or remain here, a small smile crept across his face as he declined to give a definitive answer.

“I honestly don’t know right now because it’s only my first year here,” he said. “I don’t have any plans right now, and I’m just going to see how it goes.”

In the second game of its exhibition season, the Butler men’s basketball team hosted Franklin College in front of a crowd of 8,586 at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

In contrast to their first exhibition contest, the Bulldogs immediately took control of the game, leading from start to finish in an eventual 91-53 victory.

Junior center Andrew Smith controlled the opening tip for the Bulldogs and drew a foul under the basket during Butler’s first offensive series.

Junior guard Chase Stigall followed with four 3-point baskets, as the Bulldogs shot 53 percent from behind the arc in the contest.

Butler ended the first half with a 20-point lead, 45-25.

The Bulldogs kept their foot on the gas in the second half, posting an additional 46 points on 62 percent shooting.

The second half saw many of the newest Bulldogs get significant minutes.

Freshman guard Andrew Smeathers tallied 11 points, including three 3-point baskets.

Photos by Taylor Cox

Fellow freshman guard Jackson Aldridge added 10 points and six assists in a reserve role.

Kameron Woods and Roosevelt Jones, also freshmen, recorded nine and seven points, respectively.

“We got a lot of guys quality minutes,” coach Brad Stevens said. “They were all fairly productive when they were in there, and it was a step in the right direction.”

Sophomore guard Bailey Howard led Franklin with 20 points in 23 minutes.

“We’ve got about a week to prepare for a really, really hard game [at Evansville],” Stevens said.

In their first game of the 2011 exhibition season, the Bulldogs lost to Northern State, a Division II school from Aberdeen, S.D., in front of a crowd of 5,544 at Hinkle.

While it was Butler’s first game of the exhibition season, Northern State had already played two, against Northern Iowa and Purdue, losing both.

“For Butler, it was kind of like getting a bye in the first round of a tournament then having to play a team who’s played a few games,” said Northern State coach Paul Sather.

The Wolves shot 46 percent from the field en route to a 53-50 last-second victory over the Bulldogs.

Northern State senior guard Alex Thomas found himself with possession of the ball at the top of the key with six seconds left in the game.

Tied at 50, the Bulldogs elected not to foul a Northern State shooter, and Thomas made them pay by sinking a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Wolves the 53-50 victory.

The Bulldogs shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half. Despite shooting an improved 43 percent from the field in the second half, Butler could not pull out the win.

Northern State was a model of consistency between the two halves, shooting 43 percent from the field in the second half and 46 percent for the game.

“We all hate to lose,” Stevens said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we have a lot of time to do it. We’ve got to be a lot better in almost every area.”

Smith led all scorers with 19 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes of play.

Sophomore forward Khyle Marshall added 14 points and four rebounds for Butler, while senior guard Ronald Nored logged a game-high 36 minutes and tallied six assists.

Junior forward Collin Pryor paced Northern State with 18 points.

The men will start regular season play Saturday, Nov. 12 at Evansville.

The Purple Aces beat the Bulldogs at Hinkle last season, 71-68 in overtime.