Buying-in, the Butler way

Over the past three years, no mid-major division I men's basketball team has made a splash on the national scene like Butler University. Butler has totaled 77 wins over that past three seasons including this year, dropping only 12 total games. With their remarkable team chemistry, outstanding shooting and a strong belief in their coach and their university, they have surmounted many challenges in their path over the past three seasons.

In 2006-07 they won the NIT Season Tip-Off, knocking off Gonzaga and Tennessee. Later in the year they made a run in the tournament eventually losing in the third round to the National Champion, Florida. In 2007-08 Butler made another run in the tournament losing to Tennessee 71-76 in overtime.

In this two-year span UIC has beaten Butler once, and lost by slim margins in the most other meetings. This year UIC hosted Butler, ranked nationally again for the third consecutive year, and had a 13 point lead going into halftime. The Flames, a team that could only wish to have to heart, drive and intensity that Butler has, let the game slip away from them 59-52 on national television.

This year was supposed to be UIC's year in the Horizon League, with Josh Mayo and Scott VanderMeer receiving pre-season accolades. But the Flames have not been able to get over the hump, like a Butler team can and has done.

Unlike UIC, Butler was picked to finish in the middle of the Horizon, after they lost arguably their two best players in university history in Mike Green and A.J. Graves.

At the beginning of the year Butler seemed like the only Indianans who believed that they could compete not only in the league, but the rest of the country. They have and currently hold an outstanding record of 18-1, are ranked 13th in the nation, and are just three points shy of a perfect record up to this point.

What can UIC learn, from a program like Butler?

The Flames need to focus on the basics, and find the open man. "The thing about Butler is that they always find the hot shooting man on their team and feed him the ball and play off of him," said UIC head coach Jimmy Collins, after the January 17 loss to Butler. This is a thing that UIC does not do and their 10-10 record indicates that.

Every team in the country knows how to get to UIC: blanket Mayo and get VanderMeer into foul trouble by driving the lane. Outside of those two, Tori Boyd and Robo Kreps have shown the ability to score, but seem unable to dominate.

This happened almost every game this season, and UIC does not respond and give someone else the ball. Mayo has been solid all year from the floor averaging 16.7 points per game, he was averaging 20 points in the beginning of the season, but with the constant opponent focus on stopping him, he can only do so much. VanderMeer has pulled down seven double-doubles on the season, but foul trouble has plagued him.

The problem with UIC is that they have sunk with the immanent aliments of their two captains. It seems that without Mayo and VanderMeer, UIC is lost and does not know how to respond. Kreps has performed well lately, but his scoring alone obviously does not work.

Butler is obviously no UNC or Duke, but they do know how to compete and believe in Coach Brad Steven's system. It does not matter if they shoot 39 threes, as long as 12 go in, they win, which is what happened against UIC this year.

The Flames have a basketball encyclopedia on their bench. Collins has been around the game for years. He was a first round pick by the Bulls in the '70s and has been as good of a coach as UIC has asked for. It's time now for either the educator or the students to align their tuning, though because obviously something's not clicking from transmission to cognition. This is why they are where they are and why Butler is where they are.