Sleeping with the Enemy: The Bulldogs of Butler

Your Fighting Hoyas of Georgetown are back in ball Tuesday night with a likely 2 seed in the Big East Tournament on the line in a battle against Butler and as usual we here at THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON are bringing you everything you need to about Georgetown's next opponent.  Here with us again to dish on all things Bulldogs are our buddies at Butler Hoops. Let's do this!

Butler for the third time! Are you getting sick of us?

Surprisingly, not really. If you guys keep ripping our hearts out like you did in the last game, though, I think we can start making the case that we'll only want to hang out with you guys in tropical weather. I like going up against teams like Villanova, Georgetown and Providence, because you know it's a good gauge as to where a team is at and you know the game's going to be physical, but clean. Butler needs to turn things around against the top teams in the league (currently 0-4 against Georgetown, Providence and Nova in league play) though if they want to improve their seed line in the NCAA and Big East tournaments.

Looking at Butler's results since January 1st, the only game that the Bulldogs weren't in a position to win was the game against Xavier a week ago. Any reason Georgetown shouldn't be terrified heading into this game at Hinkle?

The biggest reason that Georgetown should be salivating at this matchup is if Butler is still without their best offensive big man and low post scoring threat in Andrew Chrabascz (which I assume they still will be Tuesday). They've figured out a way to beat the bottom teams in the league (Creighton, Marquette, DePaul) without him, which is a great credit to Coach Holtmann, his staff, and the team considering they weren't a deep team before he went down, but against a team with a ton of length and athleticism like Georgetown, it's going to be a challenge for them to score in the paint without Chrabascz on the floor.

Butler has played pretty well without injured forward Andrew Chrabascz, who has missed your last 4 games. Who has stepped up in his absence? I know he's supposed to miss this game, but is there any chance he actually emerges from a cloud of smoke during team intros like The Undertaker?

As much credit as the team and coaching staff deserve for winning even without Chrabascz on the floor, as I said before, 3 of those 4 games were against the bottom three teams in the league. The one game that wasn't went about as badly as Butler fans could have imagined, getting pulverized in Cincinnati. It's cliche but true to say that it's been a lot of guys that have stepped up in Chrabascz's absence. They've reinvented themselves somewhat offensively, with Tyler Wideman and Austin Etherington taking the bulk of his minutes, but Kameron Woods has picked up his scoring significantly during these last 4 games, and I assume he'll be a bigger focus of the offense than he would have been the first 2 times Georgetown faced Butler.

Why the hell didn't you guard Darrun Hilliard in the last game against Villanova? I mean, you probably win that game by 20 otherwise.

Let's be honest. No one had even heard of Darrun Hilliard before that night, and I doubt he's on anyone's scouting report today. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than... oh, who am I kidding? Of course it stinks that Hilliard went off on Butler's ole defense. Also would have been nice for Butler to do a better job of guarding Copeland on the last second 3 in D.C. or stop Kris Dunn from going off in the 2nd half of the Butler-Providence game at Hinkle. Sometimes, you just get beat, and as disappointing as all those results are, Butler's season this year is like a dream compared to last year, so I definitely won't complain about that.

Can you guys win the Big East Tournament? How far do the Bulldogs need to advance at MSG for you to consider the BET a success?

It's certainly possible, but I don't think it's probable. Chrabascz will either just be getting back in the lineup or only have a single game under his belt (most likely) at the start of the Big East tourney, so he'll be kicking some rust off, and as much as Butler has maximized their talent, their ceiling just isn't as high as the other top teams in the league. I'd consider the tournament a success if they win their first game and just continue to play better basketball heading into the NCAA tournament. As nice as a conference tournament championship would be, I'd take winning an NCAA tournament game over the BET any day of the week.

What seed do you think Butler deserves in the Dance and what is your expectation for this team in the Tournament?

I think they'll probably end up with something in the neighborhood of a 5-7 seed, and I think they can win a game or two in the tournament if they get the right matchups. It all depends on Chrabascz though and how he's meshed back together with the team by then, which is no small task when you have to take time off this late in the year.

What TV shows are you watching these days? Any casual recommendations?

I'm pretty lame. Other than college basketball, the only things I'm watching are re-runs so that I don't have to pay too much attention to the content since this is a really busy time of year for accountants (and I am one), so there's not a ton of time to dedicate to TV viewing outside of college basketball, even with a DVR. I do think the show "Last Man on Earth" looks interesting though, so I might check that out in the near future.

Final score prediction?

I'll go with Georgetown 62, Butler 60