Post by stlvufan on Mar 25, 2007 16:26:40 GMT -5
Before I begin, I am embarrassed to say I thought I got a bargain at Stubhub until it dawned on me that the 110 dollar price for both Friday AND Sunday, and the 80 dollar ticket I scored was only for Friday. At the same time, it served me well getting a better seat for Friday only since I really have no reason to be there today.
The Dawg Pound walked across the street from the souvenir stand and toward the entrance shouting in unison, "Let's go Bulldawgs!" over and over again in perfect unison, almost as if they owned the place. I was wolfing down my meal replacements for dinner since they weren't going to let me take them inside. When I got to my seat tip-off was about 13 minutes away.
I sat across from the Dawg Pound. Most of the folks in my section were UNLV, Oregon, or Florida fans. However, it turned out that many folks in my section rooted for Butler, as you would expect. I did see a group of guys being very exhuberant, so much so that I approached them at halftime to ask if they were from Butler. Much to my chagrin, they turned out to be guys who had money riding on the upset. Otherwise, they couldn't give two hoots for Butler.
The upper concourse is actually kind of far from the court, though no further away than where many of the Butler fans are across the way. I am behind the Butler bench. When Valpo was here in 02, I was across the way, but in the upper concourse. The place was fairly full, except for nosebleed. The TV monitor on the opposite was behind the "on the field grandstands" and was partially obscured. I wouldn't have noticed in 02.
It sure was nice to see our favorite ref, JD Collins, working this game. ;D
I bet every Gator on the floor took their turns guarding AJ Graves, even Horford and Noah. They effectively shut him down from behind the arc in the first half, and he only got one that I recall in the 2nd half.
But what they couldn't do was contain him otherwise. He bobbed and weaved all through the Gator defense, and even when he got in trouble he almost always found an outlet, one time managing to call timeout before he was tied up.
The first made 3 came after the first media timeout. I got mixed up who it was, but he hit 2 in a row. I thought it was Pete Campbell, but it might have been Brandon Crone. It might have been one from each, for that matter.
I have been impressed with Butler's smart play throughout this year's tourney run. They are good at stripping the ball, showing it early against Florida and very late against Maryland. Maryland had one final shot to tie the score with a 3, but both times they took the ball out of bounds, they never got to even attempt one because the ball was stripped. Now THAT is grace under pressure, a superlative usually saved for the majors.
The biggest weakness Butler had was that Florida could post up and score at will on them. They managed to front them some in the first half, but in the second half, I don't recall seeing them ever try to front Horford. In the end, this cost them. I thought the 5th foul against Crone was a bum call as did most of the fans in my section, but I see where Crone says he screwed up - he should have backed away and let Horford fall on his butt.
By the same token, Florida allowed Butler a lot of back door layups. My favorite set was the 3 Butler guards running a weave out front, and then one of them broke for the basket and was all alone for the layup. I think the Gators adjusted in the 2nd half and did better, but I was still impressed.
The Gators had their own money set: clog the middle and find Taurean Green all alone in the corner for a 3. That's how Florida keyed their first half comeback, along with picking up their defensive intensity.
I noticed that off any made FT, Florida pressed full court, until they noticed how Butler broke their press, at which point they switched to 3/4er court, more of a moving zone rather than a press. But prior to that Joakim Noah would always hawk the inbounds pass. They may have done it off a made basket too, I'm not sure.
I was curious to see how Butler would recover from the way the first half ended and pleased to see they scored the first 7 points, including a traditional 3-pt. play by Graves. I'm glad it didn't turn into a rout in the 2nd half, or anything close to one.
I thought big name schools had cheers that were more sophisticated than what we've experienced at Valpo, but during the 2nd media timeout in the 2nd half, I could not believe that the Gator fans did the old "Two bits-Four bits-Six-bits…." cheer. That's SO high school and last century. I remember doing that one at VHS 30 years ago.
In the end, Horford, et. al., were just too much for Butler to handle in the low post. Several Butler players came close to fouling out trying to handle them. There were a few questionable calls that went against the Bulldogs, but the fact remains that they were unable to front the Gator big men, who were quite capable of scoring on them once they got the ball. Florida never gave up on their game plan and applied the screws at crunch time.
It was really a tough way to lose, but against the number one team in the country you really can't hang your head too much. It was a very good performance by Butler.
So now, both the Mid-Con and the Horizon League are done for the 2006-2007 season, and all I can say is: Only 7 more months until basketball and Valpo's first season in the Horizon League. Thank God for Baseball, or I would really go nuts this summer.
The Dawg Pound walked across the street from the souvenir stand and toward the entrance shouting in unison, "Let's go Bulldawgs!" over and over again in perfect unison, almost as if they owned the place. I was wolfing down my meal replacements for dinner since they weren't going to let me take them inside. When I got to my seat tip-off was about 13 minutes away.
I sat across from the Dawg Pound. Most of the folks in my section were UNLV, Oregon, or Florida fans. However, it turned out that many folks in my section rooted for Butler, as you would expect. I did see a group of guys being very exhuberant, so much so that I approached them at halftime to ask if they were from Butler. Much to my chagrin, they turned out to be guys who had money riding on the upset. Otherwise, they couldn't give two hoots for Butler.
The upper concourse is actually kind of far from the court, though no further away than where many of the Butler fans are across the way. I am behind the Butler bench. When Valpo was here in 02, I was across the way, but in the upper concourse. The place was fairly full, except for nosebleed. The TV monitor on the opposite was behind the "on the field grandstands" and was partially obscured. I wouldn't have noticed in 02.
It sure was nice to see our favorite ref, JD Collins, working this game. ;D
I bet every Gator on the floor took their turns guarding AJ Graves, even Horford and Noah. They effectively shut him down from behind the arc in the first half, and he only got one that I recall in the 2nd half.
But what they couldn't do was contain him otherwise. He bobbed and weaved all through the Gator defense, and even when he got in trouble he almost always found an outlet, one time managing to call timeout before he was tied up.
The first made 3 came after the first media timeout. I got mixed up who it was, but he hit 2 in a row. I thought it was Pete Campbell, but it might have been Brandon Crone. It might have been one from each, for that matter.
I have been impressed with Butler's smart play throughout this year's tourney run. They are good at stripping the ball, showing it early against Florida and very late against Maryland. Maryland had one final shot to tie the score with a 3, but both times they took the ball out of bounds, they never got to even attempt one because the ball was stripped. Now THAT is grace under pressure, a superlative usually saved for the majors.
The biggest weakness Butler had was that Florida could post up and score at will on them. They managed to front them some in the first half, but in the second half, I don't recall seeing them ever try to front Horford. In the end, this cost them. I thought the 5th foul against Crone was a bum call as did most of the fans in my section, but I see where Crone says he screwed up - he should have backed away and let Horford fall on his butt.
By the same token, Florida allowed Butler a lot of back door layups. My favorite set was the 3 Butler guards running a weave out front, and then one of them broke for the basket and was all alone for the layup. I think the Gators adjusted in the 2nd half and did better, but I was still impressed.
The Gators had their own money set: clog the middle and find Taurean Green all alone in the corner for a 3. That's how Florida keyed their first half comeback, along with picking up their defensive intensity.
I noticed that off any made FT, Florida pressed full court, until they noticed how Butler broke their press, at which point they switched to 3/4er court, more of a moving zone rather than a press. But prior to that Joakim Noah would always hawk the inbounds pass. They may have done it off a made basket too, I'm not sure.
I was curious to see how Butler would recover from the way the first half ended and pleased to see they scored the first 7 points, including a traditional 3-pt. play by Graves. I'm glad it didn't turn into a rout in the 2nd half, or anything close to one.
I thought big name schools had cheers that were more sophisticated than what we've experienced at Valpo, but during the 2nd media timeout in the 2nd half, I could not believe that the Gator fans did the old "Two bits-Four bits-Six-bits…." cheer. That's SO high school and last century. I remember doing that one at VHS 30 years ago.
In the end, Horford, et. al., were just too much for Butler to handle in the low post. Several Butler players came close to fouling out trying to handle them. There were a few questionable calls that went against the Bulldogs, but the fact remains that they were unable to front the Gator big men, who were quite capable of scoring on them once they got the ball. Florida never gave up on their game plan and applied the screws at crunch time.
It was really a tough way to lose, but against the number one team in the country you really can't hang your head too much. It was a very good performance by Butler.
So now, both the Mid-Con and the Horizon League are done for the 2006-2007 season, and all I can say is: Only 7 more months until basketball and Valpo's first season in the Horizon League. Thank God for Baseball, or I would really go nuts this summer.