Thad Matta's remade Butler looks legit: 'It’s very, very difficult to do what he’s doing.'
INDIANAPOLIS – Thad Matta has rebuilt Butler in a hurry, and he’s done it by having the most physically impressive player on the floor. Problem is — and as far as problems go, this is a good one — it’s hard to say which of his players we’re talking about. Could be point guard Posh Alexander, a muscle car in lavender shoes. Could be Pierre Brooks II, built like an NFL tight end or UFC heavyweight. Could be sleek 6-7 glider Jahmyl Telfort or elongated 6-10 center Jalen Thomas or the even bigger (elongated-er?) Andre Screen, who goes 7-1, 255 pounds.
Where is Butler going? To the top of the Big East standings, for now. The Bulldogs (10-2, 1-0) opened the 2023-24 Big East slate Tuesday night with a 74-64 victory against Georgetown at Hinkle Fieldhouse, and while Georgetown (7-5, 0-1) isn’t terribly impressive, Butler treated the Hoyas as such — leading for 37½ minutes, and playing more than 19 minutes of the second half with a lead of 10 points or more.
Posh Alexander sets tone vs. Hoyas: 'Brought a personality I didn't feel here last year.'
Insider Akeem Glaspie: First-half flurry carries balanced Butler past Georgetown
First-year Georgetown coach Ed Cooley, a big winner at Providence, might yet turn around the Hoyas — but he’d do well to follow the Matta plan: Use this first season to take notes, lumps and names. Then plug those holes in the transfer portal.
That’s what Matta did after his 14-18 debut last season in his second go-around at Butler. He turned the roster upside down, with some players graduating and others leaving on their own — the transfer portal works both ways — but Matta turning almost every loss on his roster into a net gain. No need to besmirch the players from last season who are gone. That’s not the point.
What is the point?
Butler’s back from oblivion.
'They all have something to prove'
The story from this game happened after it was over, really. It happened when Georgetown’s Cooley sat down in the media room and explained what Thad Matta has done with Butler — and how difficult it is to do.
“It’s COVID basketball,” he said, referring to the era we’re in, which includes a fifth year of eligibility for all players from that miserable 2020-21 season, combined with the transfer portal giving players the freedom to switch schools after every season. “You take a lot of players from different organizations. Some (players) are on two, three or four coaches — so that’s lot of different coaches, a lot of different philosophies.
“It’s very, very difficult to do what he’s doing.”
Cooley was talking about more than the physical specimens Matta has in his starting lineup or coming off the bench. He also was talking about the way this remade Butler team — just one player, Carmel’s John-Michael Mulloy, has been here longer than 15 months — gets along on the court.
Cooley wasn’t referring to kumbaya moments like players rushing to help a teammate up, though that’s what happened when Butler guard DJ Davis fell in a heap in the second half and was immediately surrounded by concerned Butler teammates. Which is not, interestingly enough, what happened moments earlier when Georgetown guard Rowan Brumbaugh fell to the deck and sat there, waiting, for someone to help him up. He reached both hands up to nobody in particular and looked at his teammates with wide eyes, like: Well?
Anyway, Cooley wasn’t talking about that. He was talking about the way Butler’s players already understand each other on the defensive end, calling that proof of the team’s chemistry. Which is proof of Thad Matta’s excellent job with this team.
And then a few minutes later, Matta gave some insight into how he did it.
“The biggest priority we looked at in recruiting was character,” Matta was saying, referring to transfer portal guys as much as high school recruits. “Try to look at these guys and the families they came from. There’s a ‘why’ to who they are.”
The “why” for the 2023-24 Butler basketball team looks obvious. Why did transfers like Alexander (from St. John’s), Brooks (Michigan State), Telfort (Northeastern), Davis (UC Irvine) and Screen (Bucknell) come here this year?
To win a whole lot of games.
Posh Alexander, Pierre Brooks II: wow
Butler has been beating teams this season with offense. After scoring 80 points just six times in 32 games last season, the Bulldogs scored 80 in eight of their first 11 games this season. They don’t have any one formidable scorer, though Brooks (12 points Tuesday) does average 15 ppg and looks like he’ll score 30 one of these days. But they do have four players averaging double figures, and already have seen 10 different guys score at least 10 in a game.
Butler has been winning with offense, but the Bulldogs beat Georgetown with defense. And they beat Georgetown with the kind of athletes I’m telling you about — and the kind of chemistry Cooley was talking about.
First, the athletes:
Posh Alexander is a menace. At 6-0, 205 pounds he’s one of the quickest players on the floor, and one of the strongest. And he’s absolutely the sneakiest. Early in the second half he snuck behind Georgetown’s Jay Heath to knock the ball loose, at which point our Butler insider, Akeem Glaspie, leaned over to me and said, “That’s what he does. At least once a game he gets one of those steals.”
As Akeem was finishing that thought, Alexander was blowing past Brumbaugh at the other end with a crossover dribble that had the crowd still exhaling gleefully — whooooo! — as he was finishing at the rim. And sure enough, Alexander recorded three more of those sneaky steals Tuesday night, and finished with five. He started the night third in the Big East at 1.9 steals per game and fifth in assists (5.3), and will improve in both after this game (he had seven assists).
It was Alexander who drew the assignment of defending Big East scoring leader Jayden Epps, a 6-2 guard averaging 18.9 ppg, but the way Butler defenders switch on screens, that duty also fell to Brooks (6-6, 240 pounds) and Telfort (6-7, 225), and even with so much more size they were both quick enough to handle it. Epps finished with 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting, including 1-for-4 on 3-pointers.
Afterward, with the Hoyas having gone 7-for-22 from distance overall (31.8%), Cooley was taking umbrage at the suggestion his team doesn’t shoot well.
“We have beautiful shooters,” he said. “But I like the team Thad and his (staff) put together. They have a lot of pieces that fit. They have some older dudes in a short period of time that collectively have great chemistry.”
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Butler basketball looks legit, Georgetown is first Big East victim
