Graduate forward Patrick McCaffery had 17 points in the loss against UConn. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
CALEB DENORME | SPORTS EDITOR | cdenorme@butler.edu
The men’s basketball team fell for the fifth straight time on Saturday, this time to No. 11 UConn. The Bulldogs got off to an extremely slow start but fought back multiple times to cut the lead to a one-possession game. It was in those crucial moments that the Dawgs could not take advantage, ending in yet another loss to the Huskies.
Let’s go beyond the box score for Butler’s home loss to the reigning national champions:
Failure to capitalize on opportunities
In the opening seven minutes of the game, the Bulldogs dropped behind 25-9. Spurred on by a sellout home crowd, Butler cut the lead to three with a little over two minutes to go before halftime. UConn would finish the half on a 6-0 run to take a nine-point lead into the locker room. After a disastrous start Butler fought back into the game, but then the Dawgs gave UConn all the momentum back.
The Huskies continued to pad their lead throughout the first part of the second half until Butler got back within a possession with five minutes to go. In those five minutes the Bulldogs had numerous opportunities to take the lead, but they never did. The inability to take the game from UConn led to the loss, and head coach Thad Matta knows he needs to see improvement.
“That’s where we’ve got to get better, where we can make those plays to win the games,” Matta said. “Those are the plays that we have to make.”
Butler showed resilience to fight back and stay in the contest, but they could not put the final pieces together to take the lead. The components were all there for the Dawgs to capture a marquee victory in front of their home crowd, but they fell short yet again.
“We show some unbelievable signs,” Matta said. “We’re a team that everybody has to play good. We’ve been tested, there’s no question about that.”
Where does Butler go from here?
At this point in the season last year Butler had a 10-3 record. This year’s Bulldogs are now 7-6 and on the brink of being .500 early on in the season. This squad was supposed to take the next step in Matta’s third season back at his alma mater, but instead, the Dawgs have an abysmal record and an impatient fanbase.
The losses to UConn, Marquette, Houston and Wisconsin are excusable from the Bulldogs’ standpoint. Aside from the Houston matchup, Butler has been in every game they lost to those ranked opponents. The defeats that will sting the most will be the two “buy” games against Austin Peay and North Dakota State.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to Butler’s mentality. On paper, the Dawgs should be a team that challenges the upper half of the Big East. Now at 7-6 with multiple bad losses on their resume, that is not the case. No one denies that the Bulldogs have talent, but they implode when the lights are the brightest.
When Butler figures out how to execute and follow through for 40 minutes of basketball, the Dawgs will begin to win games. Until then though, the Bulldogs remain in a free-fall.
“We’ve seen everything,” Matta said. “So now it’s time to [start] winning some basketball games.”
