like a non-Big East game. Let the guys knock around one another a little bit. Plus, I thought Dicky V was about ready to ask Monroe out on a date.

This was the first game I have seen since the Temple affair and the team looked much improved. Swarming defense (albeit too many fouls), pounding the glass, getting the ball to Monroe who actually elected to shoot it, everything except turnovers….which leads me to Chris Wright. 6 turnovers……….on a combination of lazy passes, wild passes and just out of control passes. Continued his ridiculous drives to the hoop getting zero baskets. Thank god he drew a foul or two so he could get on the scoreboard (he does shoot fouls well). Anyway, we need so much more at the point than bad decisions and poor execution.

The bench is much improved this year. It hurt so much seeing Omar Wattad getting the early call last year, followed by Nikita. I think a Nikita-less game is a good game.

Don’t miss Summers, largely because his performance really never lived up to his talent. We miss the talent, but not his game.

While Monroe obviously put up big numbers, he still played soft. He still misses too many shots around the basket as he tries to finesse it in and it rolls off the rim. Take it to the hoop beast!!

But all in all, a convincing win despite a lot of mistakes. Having said that, Butler is ranked #20 because their pre-season ranking was so high, not because they have earned it this year. So hard to draw too many conclusions here. Washington will be interesting.

With paranoia,