Tobacco Road Report

By Michael

Please...quit calling them a mid-major. Butler has been ranked nationally all season and has more tournament experience than most of the remaining teams in the field. Their home court, the venerable Hinkle Fieldhouse of Indiana basketball lore, seats around 15,000 and is regularly at capacity so they're not going to be awed by the big stage. Maryland will have it's hands full against a team that has a strong backcourt, excellent defense, and rarely commits turnovers.

Butler had its tournament resume solidified early on with non-conference victories over Notre Dame, Indiana, Tennessee, and Gonzaga. The question was would they get enough respect in the seeding process.

Butler is led by junior guards A.J. Graves (17 ppg) and Mike Green (14 ppg). The Bulldogs prefer to control tempo, averaging only 59 possessions per game, and shoot it well enough from the three-point line and free throw line to generate wins against opponents with superior top-to-bottom talent. Perhaps most tellingly, the Bulldogs average fewer than 10 turnovers per game, which means they turn it over on only 15 percent of thier possessions.

Nearly 40 percent of Butler's field goal attempts are from three, so the first thing Maryland has to do defensively is guard the arc and make the guards take it into Ibekwe and Gist to convert. It's possible that they can do this, but I'd prefer to challenge them to win it in the paint as opposed to hoping they'll be cold from deep.

The second thing Maryland has to do -- and you've heard this from me ad-nauseum -- is control the defensive glass. Butler doesn't rebound particularly well and in a slow tempo game Maryland can't afford to give up any easy second shots.

So for me it's not about creating turnovers -- forget it, it won't happen -- it's about playing good position defense and making Butler shoot over the superior length of the Terrapins. Hold them to one-and-out as much as possible and then try to transition into early offense. If the Terrapins can do this, and perhaps push the number of possessions into the mid-60s or better, I think they can advance.

Oh, and finally, don't worry about your own numbers. Against Butler nobody will have good numbers. It's about coming together as a team and doing what is necessary to win.