Russell Branch is a 6’2 point guard from Barnwell, South Carolina. He started to play at a young age as he has a father who was involved with the sport, which made it...
The Butler Grizzlies men’s basketball team season is over, with an overall record of 23-9. It is a disappointing end after losing in the region semifinals 79-76, on Friday March15. It was a close game, but ultimately their mistakes were too big to overcome.
The Head Coach is Kyle Fisher, in his fifth year as head coach, along with assistant Coaches Marques Townsend in his fourth year and Davon Usher in his second year with the team. The Grizzlies’ men basketball team had every intention of a deep post season run, which started with winning their region championship unfortunately it did not go their way. The Grizzlies had a lot of potential with sophomore forwards, Charles McClennahan Jr. and Jamichael Stillwell as lead scorers, averaging 11.4 and 12.5 respectively.
In January, the team had a positive month with only two losses against Hutchinson and Cowley. It was a good overall month with dominant performance against the likes of Independence, Colby, Seward, Northwest Kansas Technical College and an overtime win against Pratt. The month of February was remarkably similar to January. They only had two losses again versus Pratt and Barton and teams they would later play in the postseason.
Losing against these teams should have been a teaching moment for the Grizzlies and allowed a better understanding of their mistakes and what it would take to overcome them. The month of March really had impact on their season as they had three game losing streak, players got ejected in a game.
The game against Cowley showed the team’s deficiencies. That is one of the reasons they lost, they saw their limitations and did not improve those aspects. In the semifinal game against Barton, the Grizzlies allowed them to stay close, instead of asserting their dominance.
In the first half of the season the Grizzlies were averaging 72.2 points per game versus 62.7. For their opponents, it is a near 10-point differential, so it was good, but now 75.7 and 68.3 only a 3.5-points jump in scoring whereas their opponents 5.6-points jump. Their scoring jump should have been superior, which means they make more mistakes defensively.
This loss, unfortunately eliminated the Grizzlies out the post season. Their objective was to do better than the previous season, and they were unsuccessful in that quest. They will be coming back next semester in October.
