Please tell me the "lots of teams" with 2 draft picks in their starting 5 who are as defensively imposing as Butler.
I'll do that as soon as you tell me specifically what constitutes an imposing defense like Butler's, dumbass.
Will do, try to follow. Butler does four things very well. They limit possessions by slowing the game down, their perimeter defenders are good, they are sound defensive rebounders, and they are fantastic in transitional defense.
It is like a puzzle really, we'll start when they have the ball. They run the shot clock way down, here's where the 2 NBAers are important, after they run it down they can still score because Hayward can be isoed, a matchup nightmare, and Mack can break down a defense and get in the middle of the defense. Remember the 2 threes that driveway shooter hit against us? Look at what set them up.
Okay so they have just scored, or they didn't, doesn't matter. You want to get the ball up the court, well, they don't send more than 2 to the glass so there are already 3 or 4 defenders back, you have to now run a half court set. As mentioned the guards led by Nored, conference defensive POY, are good. The post defenders are either small, or dumb (Howard) so there is an advantage there, see Kelly, Curtis first half. The issue is the on ball pressure does not allow you to enter the ball as much as you like. So you get a shot up, they are very good at keeping their opponents off of the boards, they'll send everyone, not worried about getting the ball up the court quick.
So there it is Butler's formula, of course with any tourney run they have had luck, but there is a reason why they have held tourney opponents to 55 PPG. Next year they won't have the shot maker/mismatch in Hayward so their puzzle will need to be reworked. Pretty hard for a mid major to recover from losing a lottery pick, see Davidson without Steph Curry.
That lesson was free, I'll charge you from now on.
