Creighton v Butler - Preview

How to Watch, Stream, Listen, Follow

Game Time: 6:00pm CT

Location: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN

TV: FS1

Stream: FSGO

Radio: 1620AM the Zone in Omaha / 93.5 FM & 1070 AM in Indianapolis

Other Blogs: White & Blue Review - Creighton / Butler Hoops - Butler

Tweeters:

Creighton - Rob Anderson / Creighton MBB / Tom Nemitz / “Patrick Marshall” / Matt DeMarinis / Corey Lathrop / Jon Nyatawa / Fake Blue Crew

Butler - Marisa Miller / Perry Waggoner / David Woods / Fake Brad Stevens / John Dedman / Jared Grubbs

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Odds & Ends

Butler is favored by 6 points according to Odds Shark. The over/under is set at 156.5.

Kenpom says the Bulldogs have a 64% chance of winning this one with a score of 81-77.

If you’re thinking about betting on this game I’d tell you not to and then tell you that you should take that money and give it to any random person on the street that you encounter. These people might need these spare monies to feed their children, get a shoe polish, respectfully bury their pet hamster in a proper plot, buy a soda pop, fix a flat tire, mend a broken relationship over coffee, buy a video game, buy two video games, take their wife/husband/mistress/craigslist date out to dinner, take a pottery class, travel the world, donate to an anti-gambling outreach program, buy a snake to eat their pet hamster, buy porn, buy a sitting US Senator, buy a new lamp for their bedroom, buy a degree from a diploma mill, buy a handle of booze to get over their dead hamster, buy a ticket to the circus, buy a knife and a table to play knife games, buy a ticket to the arboretum, buy a cyanide tablet in case shit gets heavy, buy a blu-ray player, or even buy a machete to cut down the tall grass separating their house and their neighbor’s so they can keep tabs on them.

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Since We Last Saw One Another

When Butler traveled to Omaha back in the early aughts of January, when Martin Krampelj was still upright and the Jays were off and running on a 3 game win streak, a moderately intoxicated Steve Lavin held a CO2 powered t-shirt cannon in his hands and was firing at random into a crowd of 18,000 very, very drunk people.

After the Jays came away with an 85-74 victory, Creighton proceeded to get smacked around pretty defiantly by Xavier at the Cintas Center. They then proceeded to drop games against Providence, Villanova, Xavier (again), and Marquette. They picked up wins against the dregs of the conference in Georgetown, St. John’s, DePaul, and Seton Hall. In the process they lost Martin Krampelj but gained 7’ freshman Jacob Epperson, who was supposed to redshirt, adding a green piece to their already thin frontcourt.

Butler proceeded to drop games to Providence, Xavier, Villanova, and Georgetown. They manhandled Marquette(x2), St. John’s, Providence, and DePaul(x2). As schizophrenic as this team is, they’ve been led, for the most part, by the talents of Kelan Martin who posted 30+ point performances against Marquette, Xavier, and Villanova.

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Verba de Ludis

Well, this is it. Tonight we say goodbye to the fun and excitement Kelan Martin and Khyri Thomas have fed us over the years. In the past two years, other than playing at Providence, Martin posted career lows when met with the Bluejays, thanks in part to the defensive talents of Khyri Thomas.

I don’t know if the conference is aware of this, but there’s a bit of a rivalry between these two players. The apparent frustration that grows on Martin’s face as he finishes empty possession after empty possession, slamming the ball on the court in fits of rage, giving up easy turnovers to the junior guard, becomes something of a sideshow throughout the basketball game itself.

And Khyri loves it. Back in January, when asked how he viewed the match-up against Kelan, Khyri said, “Just compete harder than him. He kind of relaxes a little bit, here and there, so those are the possessions where I can get my steals or my stop, and hopefully he isn’t as aggressive as he was last year.”

“He kind of relaxes a little bit,” is code for he takes plays off. He gets lazy. He doesn’t focus and that’s when Khyri can capitalize.

In the BIG EAST, where there aren’t any juicy soundbites from one player to another, this is about as good as it gets.

Here are some tweets:

With the weight of Martin’s last game at Hinkle in his college career weighing heavily on his shoulders, will he miraculously be able to break free of his tormentor? Or will Khyri get the better of him yet again?

Grab your popping corn and tune in to FS1 to find out!

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