CLEVELAND – By late Friday evening I was pretty sure what I was going to write in this space. With Wright State still playing without injured star Vaughn Duggins, 20th ranked Butler had no trouble dispatching the Raiders at home on Thursday night, 64-48. Remarkably (truly remarkably), Loyola-a team that I said elsewhere with some hyperbole does not have a true Division I player on its roster–removed Wisconsin-Green Bay from the ranks of conference undefeated, upsetting the Phoenix 62-60 on Monday night on Chicago’s north side. Then in the best game of the week-one serving as a great start to the Horizon’s weekly series on ESPNU on Fridays at 9 eastern-Green Bay did the same to rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee, going on the road to give the Panther’s their first loss, 77-75 in overtime. Meanwhile, Illinois-Chicago lossed its third in a row (now four), falling at Youngstown State Thursday 80-70, while Cleveland State easily dispatched Loyola at home, in a game in which freshman Trevon Harmon may have become a “shooting star” for the Vikings.
I was about to write that no one could catch Butler, these young Bulldogs being even better than last year’s group; in fact, that history notwithstanding Brad Stevens’ current team just might run the table in the Horizon without a loss. No, Wright State can’t beat them without Duggins (and with another week gone by, might Brad Brownell red shirt him?), and probably can’t even with its star in the lineup. No, UIC won’t be able to beat them (I’m guessing Ronald Nored will guard Josh Mayo, and do just as well as CSU’s Norris Cole did last night). Both having lost this week, neither Green Bay nor Milwaukee appear to guard well enough to beat Butler. And even with Trey Harmon providing long-range shooting-and with athletic swingman D’Aundray Brown likely back for the game-no, I don’t think CSU can go into Hinkle on the last day of the regular season and beat Butler in its own gym. So I was going to give the conference regular season-and the resulting double-bye and tournament home court advantage-to Butler on January 9th.
And then came Ray McCallum’s Detroit Titans into town on Saturday, losers of four in a row, all five conference games and 17 straight road conference games, with leading scorer Xavier Keeling still sidelined with a foot injury, fresh off a 64-41 drubbing at Valpo two night’s earlier. Worse still, an early afternoon game at Hinkle, providing the visitors that much less turnaround time. Well, the game appeared so one-sided, so noncompetitive, that this writer didn’t even bother checking the score until I walked into Wolstein Arena that evening to watch UIC play Cleveland State. And to my shock-and probably to all of yours-Detroit pushed Butler further than anyone has save Ohio State, losing 54-50, with a Tryl Hartfield jumper in the air to tie with under three second left (Matt Howard rebounded with under a second remaining, was fouled and hit two free throws, making the winning margin four). To coin a phrase, I guess “that’s why they play the games.” Thomas Kennedy, Eulis Stephens and Eugene Blue each had 8 to lead the Titans, with Nemanja Jokic adding 6 along with a game-high 7 rebounds. Behind Jokic’s 7 boards-and with Matt Howard limited to 26 minutes with foul trouble–Detroit outrebounded Butler for the game 29-20.
So where do we go from here? Does the Titans’ near miss signal that Butler can be had, or did it provide just the wake up call Coach Stevens’ group needed to concentrate on conference play? Did it expose freshman inconsistency (Gordon Hayward scored just 5 in 36 minutes, and worse, grabbed just one rebound; Shelvin Mack scored just 7), or will it serve as the impetus for freshman growth? Well, with both Wisconsin teams now having lost, Wright State having lost three three and UIC in free-fall, well, I wish 4-2 Cleveland State hadn’t played its home game with Butler before Harmon became eligible. Nonetheless, Gary Waters has said more than once that “in the end, the team that wins the Horizon regular season will have four losses,” which means that his Vikings remain in the hunt. I’m not sure I can find four losses on Butler’s schedule-not sure I even see one-and somehow, I suspect the entire rest of the conference is now playing for second place. That said, second place is quite the plum in the Horizon, as the double-bye in the conference tournament (assigned to the first and second seeds) is even more valuable than the bye earned by first and second seeds in each NFL conference.
Horizon news and notes:
- In CSU’s home win Saturday night over UIC, sophomore Norris Cole blanketed league-leading scorer Josh Mayo for all 34 minutes Mayo played, holding him to just two field goals (2-10) and 6 points, in fact holding him scoreless until he cashed in two free throws more than 14 minutes into the second half. CSU center Chris Moore led all scorers in the game with 18 (on 8-8 shooting), and UIC freshman power forward Jelani Poston emerged to play his best half of the year in the second, finishing the game with 14 points on 6-6 shooting (all near the goal), and 7 rebounds. Back to Cleveland State, freshman guard Josh McCoy-who hit from way out while playing Mayo in practice Friday on CSU’s scout team-continued right where he left off in practice, hitting all three treys he took in the UIC game. Coach Waters told the media after the game that McCoy earned his playing time with his strong practice shooting mimicking Mayo.
- Trey Harmon started both CSU games this week for injured D’Aundray Brown, and against Loyola scored 17 in 34 minutes, on 5-9 shooting, including 4-7 from the arc.
- After losing 64-48 at Butler Thursday night, a Duggins-less Wright State squad turned things around, winning at Valpo Saturday night by an identical score. Todd Brown led all scorers with 19 (6-12) and grabbed 5 boards. John David Gardner continued to improve offensively, scoring 18 (5-11). 6-5 sophomore guard Michael Rogers led Valpo with 12 (4-7) and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds.
- After surprising UIC 80-70 on Thursday night, Youngstown State couldn’t parlay that win into a home sweep, falling to Loyola 68-57 on Saturday night. Junior guard Aric Van Weelden rebounded from a subpar performance at CSU Thursday night to lead the Ramblers with 12, hitting all four of his shots, all treys. Kelvin Bright of YSU led both teams in scoring, continuing to grow offensively with 22, on 9-18 shooting. In Thursday’s win over UIC, Bright had outscored Josh Mayo 23-20, on 6-15 shooting, including 3-6 from the arc and 8-9 from the line.
- CSU and YSU have their toughest weeks of the season upcoming (in terms of basketball, geography and weather) as both teams travel to Wisconsin to face Milwaukee and Green Bay. CSU’s games Thursday night in Green Bay and Saturday night in Milwaukee will both be televised back in Cleveland on SportsTime Ohio, those games to air at 8:30 and 8 eastern, respectively.
- The second installment of the weekly Friday night ESPNU game features Wright State at Detroit, again at 9 pm on January 16. That game should tell both whether Coach McCallum can build on the near miss at Butler, and whether we’ll get to see Vaughn Duggins at all this year for Coach Brownell’s Raiders. Here’s hoping game no. 2 of that weekly series is as exciting as the Green Bay-Milwaukee game was last week.
