#BIGEASThoops Season Preview: Butler Bulldogs
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
When Butler cornerstones Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones departed the program last spring after storied careers, a large chunk of the 3,119 points and 1,301 rebounds the Bulldogs will lose from last season went with the former Butler dynamic duo.
It’s enough to give Butler head coach Chris Holtmann a case of the night sweats. But Holtmann knows his team better than any outsider and he thinks the losses of Dunham and Jones, while significant, can be overcome this season.
“They were terrific players and guys who really identified with Butler and Butler identified with them. You lose great players a lot, but those guys had a great imprint on our program,” Holtmann said. “So this season, I think it’s going to have to be a collective effort. I don’t look at this and say, ‘Listen, this is going to be answered by one or two guys.’ Collectively we’re going to have to be better in all areas. Coaching better, playing better, we’re going to have to do everything better to try and manage these losses.”
Just to make things a little more challenging for Holtmann is the fact only five players on Butler’s roster have played a game in a Bulldogs uniform.
“I think what you have to do is try and speed up their development as quickly as possible,” Holtman said. “When six of your 11 guys have not yet played a minute in a Butler uniform there’s no question that it’s going to raise some questions and we have to go about answering them.”
There are some certain in-house answers in holdovers Kelan Martin, Tyler Wideman, Andrew Chrabascz and Tyler Lewis. Martin, in particular, raised his game last season when he averaged 15.7 points a game after logging 7.1 points in his freshman season. Chrabascz is the only other returner to average in double figures (10.7) while Wideman, a 6-8, 240-pound bruiser, averaged 7.8 points and 5.7 rebounds.
“I think we have to find the next Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones,” Holtmann said. “But I do think our older guys are well aware of the great teammates those guys were and the players they were and I think they are anxious to step into increased roles.”
There will be no shortage of fresh faces at Hinkle Fieldhouse this season as Holtmann will have the services of a pair of transfers in Kethan Savage (from George Washington) and Avery Woodson (from Memphis) as well as redshirt freshman Sean McDermott, who attended the same high school as Dunham (Pendleton Heights). Also joining the Bulldogs this season are Kamar Baldwin, who scored nearly 2,600 points and grabbed over 1,000 rebounds in high school, and 6-11, 240-pounder Joey Brunk, a finalist for Indiana Mr. Basketball.
So it appears Holtmann, one of only 11 coaches to lead his program to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons as head coach, will have lots of choices and talent with which to find that next Dunham and Jones.
“I would say Kethan Savage and Avery Woodson are two older transfers who are coming in and then there are the returning guys like Tyler Wideman, Tyler Lewis, Andrew Chrabascz and Kelan Martin who will be very important for us,” Holtmann said.
Butler is one of only 19 programs nationally to appear in the NCAA Tournament in eight of the last 10 seasons and he is one of only two coaches in Butler history to begin their careers with back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. But Holtmann does caution about the upcoming season because he will be trying to reload on the fly.
“It’s a little different doing it this year. We haven’t had to reload in a power league before so I think that makes it a little bit different and it presents some new challenges when you try and reload in a league the caliber of the BIG EAST,” Holtmann said. “But I think we’ve been able to put together a blend of old guys and new guys and it remains to be seen how quickly we can get back to being good.”