Game Eight Recap: Butler @ Bradley

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Traveling five hours in a day to Bradley games isn't for everyone. But even though the Braves were burnt on their home court by a hot shooting Butler team, the trip still had value.

Butler made 13 three-pointers and shot 53 percent overall en route to a victory over Bradley on Wednesday. The game dropped the Braves to 4-4 overall, whereas Butler stayed a perfect 8-0.

Having made the five-hour trek to and from Peoria, this game has had a chance to settle a bit before discussing what happened.

No team should come to Carver Arena and be able to put up 87 points, especially a team as young as the Bulldogs. That being said, Butler has assembled another solid team that will surely continue to get better in the next 3-4 years.

Bradley made a point to stop leading scorer Matt Howard, which it did rather well. The sophomore forward sat most of the first half with foul trouble and the Braves limited him to 2-of-7 shooting and nine points overall.

The problem was, as Bradley sagged down to stop Howard, Butler had five different players that hit from beyond the arc. Forward Gordon Hayward couldn't be stopped in the first half, netting Butler's first eight points and 17 total during the first twenty minutes. He helped the Bulldogs streak out to a 20-6 lead to start the game, putting Bradley in a huge hole from which it never recovered.

Guard Shelvin Mack had a solid game throughout, matching fellow freshman Hayward for high scoring honors with 20. These two are already really good players and they've got 3 1/2 seasons of eligibility left.

Bradley tried to battle back from a 13-point halftime deficit, and nearly got there, trimming the Butler lead to 57-52 with 10:35 left. But, as they did the entire game, the Bulldogs answered another punch from the Braves, reeling off 16 of the next 21 points to put the game out of reach.

While Butler did have a great game, Bradley didn't do much to stop the Bulldogs. Slow defensive rotations led to either wide open jumpers or layups when the Braves didn't rotate quickly enough on screens.

From a player perspective, freshman guard Eddren McCain clearly was the most valuable Brave. He poured in a career-high 18 points and looks like he's rapidly turning into the point guard of not just the future, but also the present.

Another bright spot was sophomore guard Sam Maniscalco, who was coming off a rough game at Michigan State. He looked sharper, quicker and finally knocked down his 3-point attempts (4 of 5). Maniscalco should start at the off/shooting guard position next to McCain.

As for the rest of the team, the effort looked either inconsistent or not there at all. Guards Dodie Dunson and Chris Roberts both had poor defensive games. Center David Collins was invisible again, seeing his minutes drop from 23 against Michigan State to just 11 versus Butler.

But, all of those lost minutes didn't go to center Anthony Thompson, who was firmly planted on the bench until four minutes left in the game. Most of these went to freshman Taylor Brown, who looks to have a lot of talent, but shouldn't be playing the five position at only 6'6" tall.

Forward Theron Wilson had his usual impressive moments, including a couple great hustle plays and a tip slam dunk. But, for a team that desperately needs leadership, he went stretches of the game where he too was invisible. Wilson finished with the quietest 15 points in recent memory.

Listening to the postgame show, head coach Jim Les had little positives to say. He sounded angry and pledged that there would be changes to the lineup and certain privileges would be taken away from the team.

Maybe they won't be able to use their locker room? Coaches have done it before.

What the lineup changes are can only be pure speculation at this point, but look for Collins and Roberts to be moved out of the starting lineup in favor of Brown and McCain.

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Though the final turned out to be ugly, I was able to take some pretty decent pictures at this game. If anyone looked at my shots from the 2007 Michigan State game, it will be evident how much better of a camera I am using now.

Click the photo above to view a slideshow.