FanHouse A.j.Graves

For the majority of each of their games on Tuesday night it looked like Drake and Butler were looking ahead to their Bracket Buster game. Announced on Monday and scheduled for February 23rd, if both sets of Bulldogs keep winning they will have a combined 48-3 record and could secure the winner a three seed come tournament time. Who knows, maybe even higher given their current rankings and the vagaries of college hoops.

That's a lot of ifs, especially after neither team looked sure to get to this morning without another loss. Butler trailed at Valparaiso for the first 39:45 before Pete Campbell knocked down a three to give them their first lead of the night. Valpo's Jarryd Loyd lost the ball on the ensuing possession and the Bulldogs matched last year's 20-2 start. Campbell might have provided the final heroics but it was A.J. Graves who made it possible. He tied the game three times in the final three minutes and drew a double that led to Campbell's open winner.

Meanwhile, the other Bulldogs had their hands full in Normal. They fell behind Illinois State 38-29 at the half with Josh Young missing every shot he tried in the first 20 minutes and, for a time, looked headed to a loss that would keep the MVC a race. Young scored 17 points after the break, including four three-pointers, and Drake rallied for a 73-70 win. They now lead the Redbirds by four games in conference and have the second longest winning streak in the country behind Memphis.

George Mason started January as a team looking for its identity. Losses to Georgia State and Delaware had them behind the eight-ball in the CAA and the preseason conference favorites were looking like a team with more flaws than assets. Things changed quickly, though. Will Thomas had a career game to stave off an upset in double overtime at Hofstra on Thursday and then Dre Smith shot his way into the record books during yesterday's 96-75 win at James Madison.

Smith made all 10 of his three-point tries to set a NCAA record for most tries without a miss. He finished with 34 points overall, a career-high which was only part of the reason to believe the Patriots are on the right track. They also outrebounded the Dukes by 14 and shot 65% for the game. Delaware lost for the second straight time yesterday, which leaves GMU in a three-way tie behind VCU in the Colonial.

The Rams won 78-68 at Old Dominion yesterday. They don't have the depth of the Patriots but they have two players in Eric Maynor and Jamal Shuler who can go off any night. They each scored 26 points against ODU and each finished with a double-double to boot. Shuler had 11 boards and Maynor dished 10 assists, an overwhelming two-man band.

Butler is off to their best start since 2002-03 after beating Wisconsin-Green Bay 74-65 and the most impressive thing is how they've gotten there. No one is surprised that Butler's a good team but their versatility has been most unexpected. They've won without A.J. Graves shooting the lights out and when he's less than his best. They've won with the expert hand of Mike Green guiding them and by following freshman Matt Howard and via blowout and nailbiter. The one consistent thread has been the way their three-point marksmanship has overcome their rebounding deficiencies.

You can strike that one from the list. The Bulldogs only made 3-of-19 from deep last night but outrebounded the Phoenix 38-30 and dominated the paint for their 14th victory. Howard got 12 of his 22 points from the foul line and Butler shot 41 overall to make up for their errant perimeter shooting. Green Bay's coach Tod Kowalczyk stormed out of the interview room when he was asked if he wanted to comment on the 41-18 difference in foul shots but it was clear that the Bulldogs were too much for his defense to contend with.

Will the same be true of Cleveland State?

Tonight's matchup between Butler and Southern Illinois had everything you look for in a trademarked bracket buster. There was no such marking on tonight's game, those aren't until February, but the outcome may make it hard for Southern Illinois to find their way into the NCAA tournament as an at-large team. A.J. Graves nailed a three from just inside the half-court line as time expired to give the Bulldogs a 57-55 win.

The loss drops SIU to 5-6 on the season and was incredibly frustrating. They complemented their defensive intensity with better than usual shooting, highlighted by Joshua Bone's best game of the year. Bone hit 7-of-10 from the floor, including five threes, and SIU shot a respectable 47.9% from the floor. That defensive intensity, which limited Butler to 15 field goals all night, had a downside, though. The Bulldogs went to the line 30 times and their 21 makes helped make up for their erratic shooting.

The fouls also kept Randal Falker on the bench for long stretches, another key factor in the loss. Falker had 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots but wasn't around long enough to tip the game his team's way.

Forgive me if you're already pregaming for the Emerald Bowl or have been waiting since May to see if heavyweight also-ran Dominick Guinn can recover from his loss to Eddie Chambers but I do believe ESPN's programming whiz kids are making a mistake tonight. Those are your programming options in prime time on ESPN and the deuce while the considerably smaller ESPNU gets one of the biggest early season college basketball games. The Butler Bulldogs are bringing their nationally ranked show to Carbondale for a mid major bonanza of hoopy goodness.

Southern Illinois was the preseason darling of the mids but their horrific shooting has them at 5-5 entering tonight's game with the 16th-ranked Bulldogs. Their offense has always been problematic but their rebounding has taken a hit this season, which may explain why they can't win as often.

Butler and new coach Brad Stevens are poised for a return trip to the Sweet 16, maybe further. A.J. Graves and Mike Green are a splendid backcourt and the freshman Matt Howard has given them inside balance. They can shoot and score in bunches but have struggled a bit with the turnovers. Can SIU exploit that and pick up a big win to propel them into conference play?

People go to Las Vegas to gamble and when you gamble there's always a chance you're gonna lose. Purdue is obviously not up for that kind of trip to Sin City so they got their losing out of the way while still in West Lafayette. Wofford beat the Boilermakers 69-66 in the second round of the Las Vegas Classic, a holiday bash that has its first two rounds played on campus sites as opposed to the Strip. The Terriers played from behind for most of the night but Purdue could never deliver a knockout blow, leaving Shane Nichols with a chance to play hero.

Nichols banged home a three to tie the score at 66 with 49 seconds left and then the Terriers forced a turnover and kept grabbing offensive rebounds until he hit a layup with two seconds to play. Purdue never got a shot up in that last minute and lost a game they really shouldn't have. Wofford's only other win against a D-1 team was a one-pointer against UNC-Greensboro and they turned the ball over 16 times last night. Since the Boilermakers play in the Big 10, though, that Greensboro win may still sit alone.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts:

One of the best moves the Horizon League has ever made was their decision to welcome Valparaiso to the fold this season. The Crusaders helped the conference to a 5-1 mark in games played Sunday and they are 10-1 after routing Chicago State 90-61. The vowel obsessed Samuel Haanpaa hit 10 three-pointers and finished with 32 points to lead Valpo to their eighth straight victory. The Finnish sharpshooter and the rest of Homer Drew's crew will have to be at their best over the next two weeks to keep the winning streak alive. They play at Wisconsin and then travel to Chapel Hill on December 30 in games that could go a long way toward deciding how many Horizon clubs make the Big Dance.

Butler will certainly be one of them. A.J. Graves shook off his recent struggles and buried seven threes of his own to lead the #19 Bulldogs to a 79-68 win over Florida State. The win, technically a neutral siter despite being in Indianapolis, puts the loss to Wright State well into the rear-view. Those Raiders had another impressive win, coming back from 16 down to beat Miami of Ohio 58-57. Illinois-Chicago beat DePaul for Windy City bragging rights while their Land of Lincoln compatriots at Loyola knocked off Northern Illinois to round out a great day for the Horizon.

The rest of the winners and losers after the jump.

For a week that featured very little college basketball, it was a pretty good one for the mid majors. Binghamton and New Orleans pulled off nice upsets while the A-10 grew in stature thanks to wins from Xavier and Massachusetts. The weekend brings a bit more action although you wouldn't know it from tonight's slate. Eight games are on tap, but only two of them match D-I schools against each other. Hartford figures to be a sacrificial lambs at Villanova but Drake's got more than an outside chance in Iowa City. Their MVC cohorts from Bradley already beat the Hawkeyes at Carver Hawkeye Arena and so did Louisiana-Monroe.

The Bulldogs have another edge over the Hawkeyes. Their coach, Keno Davis, has probably seen more games at Iowa's home than their coach Todd Lickliter. Davis is the son of Dr. Tom Davis, and graduated from Iowa in 1995, so he should feel right at home this evening. If Josh Young and Leonard Houston continue to nail almost 50% of their three point tries, Drake has a good chance to make them Iowa's biggest winner. Until January 3rd anyway.

In wins against Ohio State and Detroit, Butler was able to overcome poor games by A.J. Graves and Mike Green. Freshman forward Matt Howard had strong games and Butler prevailed without playing their best. The third time wasn't the charm, however, as Graves played poorly again and the Bulldogs were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten at Wright State. To be fair, his teammates weren't much better in the 43-42 loss. They shot 32% from the floor as a whole, led by their backcourt's 4-of-23 brickfest. Graves had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but missed a three and Wright State's fans flooded the court in a frenzy after knocking off the nation's 13th ranked team.

Unlike those previous games, though, Howard couldn't pick up the slack. He finished with just five points to complete a defensive effort that should make coach Brad Brownell very proud of his Raiders. Offensively, Wright didn't do much to overwhelm the Bulldogs but they moved the ball, found the open man and made the most of their limited opportunities.

Elsewhere on the mid-major hardcourts:

After winning the Great Alaska Shootout and whipping Ohio State at Hinkle Fieldhouse, a trip to Detroit probably didn't seem all that daunting to the Butler Bulldogs. The Titans didn't have the pedigree of Butler's recent opposition and they couldn't have expected much pushback from a team that they figured to use as a steppingstone to the Horizon League crown. Detroit, however, had other ideas. They harassed Butler's fantastic guards A.J. Graves and Mike Green into 5-of-18 shooting and held the normally deadeye three-point shooting to 16%. Would Butler lose their conference opener?

No, thanks to their newest star. The freshman forward Matt Howard, who led them to victory against Ohio State, was unstoppable inside Thursday night. He had 20 points to bail out the misfiring perimeter players and added 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. His play helped the Bulldogs outlast the Titans 53-46 and moved Butler to 8-0 on the year. It's also given the team more balance and could make them even tougher than they were in heading to the Sweet 16 last season.

Elsewhere on the mid-major hardcourts: