You have to admit, when people talk of the superb guards the BIG EAST is blessed to have in its ranks this season, the first three names that usually roll off the tongue are Marquette’s Markus Howard, St. John’s Shamorie Ponds and Seton Hall’s Myles Powell. Not a bad triumvirate, for sure.
But there is one name that seems to get omitted during those “Who’s the best guard?” discussions. The one who leads his team in a plethora of categories. The one whose name is found all over the BIG EAST statistical leaderboard. The one who plays his home games in one of the country’s finest and most historic facilities. And the one who was tasked with taking over a team that lost a 2,000-point scorer to graduation and keeping it relevant in the BIG EAST.
That would be Butler’s 6-1 junior gem Kamar Baldwin.
You need points? Baldwin delivers 17.7 points a game, good for seventh in the conference. Break things down into just BIG EAST games and his production bounces up to 22.2 points a game, locking him into fifth place.
Rebounds, you say? Baldwin leads the Bulldogs in total rebounds (108), defensive boards (96) and rebounds per game (5.7). Not bad for a guard. Baldwin is also top ‘Dog in steals (26) and minutes played (34.6) and is tied for the team lead in blocks (8) with Aaron Thompson. Did we mention he is all of 6-feet, 1-inch?
So why isn’t Baldwin in the conversation with the conference’s best guards? He isn’t sure why, and it’s not something the humble Baldwin cares all that much about.
“I don’t really pay any attention to that stuff,” said Baldwin, who is coming off a season-high 30-point effort in Butler’s win over St. John’s last Saturday. “I just come into a game and try and help my team win to the best of my ability. I let the rest take care of itself.”
Baldwin said he felt no added pressure to replace the now-graduated former star Kelan Martin and his 2,000-plus points coming into the season, saying, “I was just going to do the things I’ve been doing, playing to my strengths and help the team win.”
And the Bulldogs’ last two games are just the latest examples of the impact Baldwin can have on a game. In Butler’s 87-69 road win over an improving DePaul team, Baldwin logged a double-double with 17 points and a career-best 14 rebounds. He then followed that up with that 30-point masterpiece in the 80-71 victory over the Johnnies on Saturday. Those two wins proved pivotal for Butler coming on the heels of back-to-back, one-point losses to Seton Hall and Xavier which had sunk the Bulldogs to 1-3 in conference play.
But almost as important as his production in those two wins was his relaxed demeanor following those two narrow defeats, when Butler’s season could have gone off the rails.
“We just came together as a team and we felt like we were right there,” Baldwin said. “We just had a few things that we had to clean up and we just focused on that the next few days in practice. And that helped when we went to DePaul and we got a good road win.”
His calming influence in the face of adversity just might be his biggest assist of the season.
For a team that is this close to being 5-1 in conference play and knocking on first place going into Butler’s game against Villanova Tuesday night, Baldwin is excited for what he sees as a team that still has lots of room to improve and a chance to challenge for the BIG EAST penthouse this season.
“We’re still growing. We did learn from those losses and we also learned things from the win at DePaul and the win over St. John’s,” Baldwin said. “We’re still growing as a team and the guys here are eager to continue to grow and are hungry and looking for ways to get better. I think we can get a lot better. We know we have work to do but we’re still very hungry.”
Now Baldwin and the Bulldogs will look to make their biggest splash of the season when they host the defending national champions Tuesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse (FS1. 7 p.m.). Butler has knocked off the Wildcats at home the past two years and a sold-out Hinkle will be awaiting them Tuesday night.
“We’re just eager to play a team that has won the National Championships two of the last three years,” Baldwin said. “We’re just going to come in and play our way, play Butler basketball, and we’ll see what the scoreboard says at the end of it.”
And if Baldwin were to lead Butler to another victory over Nova, if he were to outshine Phil Booth, another of the brilliant guards in the league, if he were to drop 30-plus on the defending champs, would he then be in the conversation as one of the league’s elite?
Spoiler alert: He’s already there. Even if Baldwin is too humble to say so himself.
“I just take each game and try to help my team win the best that I can,” Baldwin said.
Is there such a thing as being too humble? If there is, then Baldwin would surely be a league leader in that category as well.