Butler at SIU

[pfunk880]

Wow, SIU was outscored by 18 at the line and made just 3 FT's all game. That's pitiful.

[MacabreMob]

Wow, SIU was outscored by 18 at the line and made just 3 FT's all game. That's pitiful.

Announcers mentioned the ft-attempts for Butler as opposed to SIU.... do those crack pipe's know that in a return BracketBuster game (just like a regular BracketBuster game), the road team gets their Conference's officials - all 3 of them!

[BradleyBrave]

Announcers mentioned the ft-attempts for Butler as opposed to SIU.... do those crack pipe's know that in a return BracketBuster game (just like a regular BracketBuster game), the road team gets their Conference's officials - all 3 of them!

I didn't think the officials were that bad. Butler took it to SIU, and SIU didn't return the favor. SIU also missed FT's that would have won them the game. SIU just isn't very good, at least not compared to what they've been the last 6 years.

And to add insult to injury, ESPN leads off SportsCenter with the Butler buzzer-beater over SIU. I'm sure they just loved seeing an MVC power go down like that...

[MacabreMob]

I didn't think the officials were that bad. Butler took it to SIU, and SIU didn't return the favor. SIU also missed FT's that would have won them the game. SIU just isn't very good, at least not compared to what they've been the last 6 years.

And to add insult to injury, ESPN leads off SportsCenter with the Butler buzzer-beater over SIU. I'm sure they just loved seeing an MVC power go down like that...

Oh, BradleyBrave... I was ok with the officiating.

But I just wanted to point out that BracketBuster games AND BracketBuster RETURN games follow the same rule that the road team gets their Conference Refs. All teams know it going in.

[real fan]

SIU caught a huge break when Falker was not called for his 5th foul with 33 seconds to go and Butler had to burn their final timeout ; SIU lost this game at the line as they could not make their freethrows ; they will struggle on the road as they do not shoot the ball well at home and that stat normally drops on the road.

[Chico]

I don't know if the MVC has a "power" this year.

[houstontxbrave]

That shot rolled around... had a lot "juice" on it... and then it. Amazing.

I took the Bulldogs +1 1/2 and thought... yea... sweet, catch the bet and the MVC catches the win.

Oh, well.... off to the ticket window to cash another ticket.

And btw.... I take back everything bad I said about SIU... They play like they did tonight... they win the MVC at 15-3 or better. Bone coming outta his shell... SIU finding offense without Falker on the floor.

I thought SIU was horrible all game long, outside of Bone and Faulkers first 7 or so minutes they had nothing other then a lot of fouls, a bunch of turnovers and horrific shooting. SIU just is a dull team to watch they stand around on offense no motion at all, they reach or get pump faked constantly on defense, they just do not seem like a very good team overall. Of course they have played a very difficult schedule but they lost this game and SLU because they refused to put either team away. Not a good sign for a veteran team.

In many ways us and SIU are very similar.

[Bravesfan]

Boy, not much more that you can say about a game like this. Every team loses a game or two like this in a season, but SIU desperately needed it, and thanks to poor free throw shooting down the stretch, they could not get the job done. Not a poorly played game for SIU by any stretch, but Butler shows why they could be a Final Four contender this year.

Anyway, the Valley is still hanging on to 7th in the RPI, and hopefully a couple of teams will separate themselves from the pack and assure us two bids, Bradley hopefully being one of them.

[Da Coach]

Final stats--

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200712280528

SIU shot just 25% from the free throw line (3-12) and just 30% from three (6-20). Bone was 5-7 from three, everyone else was just 1-13. Who would have though it possible, that Matt Shaw could play 38 minutes on his own floor and go scoreless in a big game against Butler, who doesn't have much interior size!

Nice ESPN article by Kyle Whelliston.--

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=whelliston_kyle&id=3171954&campaign=rss&source=NCAAHeadlines

Who would have thought the only MVC school below .500 going into the conference season would be SIU?

[Braves4Life]

Highlights and video excerpts of game, including Graves' game-winner.................

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3172082&categoryId=2459792&n8pe6c=1

[tornado]

The AJ Graves was the #1 play on ESPN SportsCenter's Plays of the Day.
What this proves is that if you don't have the MVC refs giving SIU all the breaks and a total pass on all the hand checking and the hard contact,
then the fouls will really hurt the Salukis. Too bad the refs we have in the Valley give them too much leeway with all the contact.
(talk to Barry Hinson about that. He has always said the way he prepares his team for their game vs. SIU is to bring a dozen angry
junk-yard dogs onto the practice floor and have the players scrimmage while the dogs scratch and bite like crazy)

Butler benefitted from 23 SIU fouls and took 30FT's
SIU benefitted from only 17 Butler fouls and took only 12 FT's.

I checked what the SIU fans thought of the officiating, and NOT one fan thought they were cheated, they all agreed that the Salukis dig their own holes by fouling too much.
One other observation that came up time and time again is how much they miss a kid like Tatum who could stick a clutch shot once in a while, and lots of SIU "fans" really heaped on Matt Shaw, and were pretty vicious.
Good thing BU doesn't have these kind of bandwagon fans that jump off and start criticising as soon as a couple tough losses occur!



ps-- one thing the game did was to bump the Valley's SOS (Strength of Scheduling) up a notch, past the Pac-10 and into 9th place. The RPI stays in 7th place.

[Double D]

A couple of points:

I think a lot of teams go away from a game with Butler thinking they should have won. Amazingly very few of them seem to make it happen.

It is unbelievable that a player with Matt Shaws physical ability and skills can go scoreless. You would think as a 4 he would at least have some "roll" oportunities from all the screening in their daunted "Motion" offense.

Bryan Mullins is at best a solid supporting player. He is strong and just quick enough. He plays defense by "holding" guys with his long arms (which maddens me that they allow) and he "carries" the ball consistently when dribbling. And, well his shooting speaks for itself.

Last night SIU got what they normally do out of Falker. Their young perimeter players (Bone, Clemmons, etc.) were good. Better than they had been.

If those players continue to improve and Shaw scores even close to what he should. They will play a significant role in the Valley race.

[jasonpeoria911]

Kind of odd. Bradley loses 2 home non conference games after winning 27 straight. Now SIU loses 2 home games this season after winning like 48 out of 50 the previous years. Lets hope it continues for SIU and stops for BU LOL.

Jason