Senior forward Pierre Brooks had 23 points in the loss against Wisconsin. Photo by Ben Holmes.
CALEB DENORME | SPORTS EDITOR | cdenorme@butler.edu
The men’s basketball team dropped their third straight game, this time against Wisconsin in the Indy Classic. The Bulldogs went down early and never grabbed the lead, cutting the difference to single digits a few times but never taking advantage. Senior forward Pierre Brooks led the scoring charge for the Bulldogs with 23 points, with graduate forward Patrick McCaffery adding 16 points as well.
Let’s go beyond the box score for Butler’s fourth loss of the season.
Another slow start
This is becoming a common trend for Butler this season. The Bulldogs opened the game and allowed a 9-0 run to put themselves in a hole early on. The Dawgs would come back to tie the game at 14-14, but it was all Wisconsin from there.
Allowing a team to go on a hot scoring streak to start off the game is not only demoralizing, it puts more pressure on the offense to produce. Butler looked panicked and untidy at times, failing to generate solid offensive looks in the first half.
“We’ve just got to start off games better,” Brooks said. “I think if we get off to a good start we’ll be in a lot more games. The last three we’ve been down [early] … and it’s hard for a team to come back like that, especially against a good team like Wisconsin.”
After the Bulldogs managed to pull themselves out of the early deficit and get back in the game, the Badgers went on an 11-2 run to stretch the lead back out to nine. That became the theme of the game for the Dawgs as time ticked away. Anytime Butler got within striking distance Wisconsin would go on a tear and put themselves firmly back in front.
Two big stats are Wisconsin’s points in the paint and free throws. The Badgers scored 40 of their 83 points in the lane and added 25 more on free throws alone. That means 78.3% of Wisconsin’s scoring output came from in the paint or at the charity stripe.
Butler showed its usual resiliency by fighting to get back into the game at different points in the contest, but sloppy interior defending and fouling the Badgers killed off any momentum. It will be another tough loss to swallow, especially with the Big East gauntlet on the horizon.
Jahmyl Telfort goes missing
Fifth-year forward – and usual top-scorer for the Bulldogs – Jahmyl Telfort ended this game with eight points on 3/10 shooting, seven rebounds and two assists. For a player that typically averages 16.2 points per game, Telfort went missing in a massive matchup.
The Bulldogs tried to get him started early on, but Wisconsin’s defense was keen to double Telfort when he was in the post. Badgers head coach Greg Gard was proud of his players for how they defended Telfort.
“When you hold a player of his caliber three for ten that’s a really good night,” Gard said. “There weren’t many easy shots for him. We were able to exchange a lot of things when he did get involved in ball screens and make sure he couldn’t get down lane lines for the most part.”
Brooks and McCaffery picked up the scoring slack, but it was still not enough for the Dawgs. Butler needs Brooks, Telfort and preferably McCaffery to all play well together if they want to win games.
This recent loss just adds to a string of disappointing early-season defeats where the Bulldogs looked severely outclassed. Now at 7-4 and looking down the barrel of Marquette and UConn, Butler needs changes fast.
“Just because you lose three games in a row doesn’t mean you’re going to have a bad season,” McCaffery said. “You’ve just … got to show up the next day, go to practice, put in the work and keep pushing forward. We have so many games left to play … so many opportunities. There’s a lot of meaningful basketball left.”
