Owen Berk
Student Sports Media
After a night in the Sleep Inn and Suites in Hays, the Butler men’s basketball was well rested before its first round playoff game in Colby against the seven-seeded Trojans. Instead of taking the four hour road trip all at once, the Grizzlies opted to head to Hays a day before the game to beat some bad weather. After a noon shoot-around at Fort Hays State University, the team loaded the bus to finish the last hour and a half trek to their frigid destination, Colby, Kansas. But the Trojans defended their home-court well, defeating Butler 77-70 on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
The Grizzlies’ offense was tested from every spot on the court. Beyond the arc, their two best catch and shoot weapons, freshmen Kamron Brice and Sam Ward both out with injuries and did not make the trip with the team. Inside the paint, the Grizzlies were all healthy but they were matching up against Moses Bol. Hailing from Wau, Sudan, the 7-foot-1 sophomore is the first cousin of the tallest NBA player of all time, Manute Bol and also a second cousin to Oregon freshman and most likely a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft, Bol Bol.
The start of the game was all too common, a slow start forcing coach Bryan Miller to take a timeout just two minutes into the game. Butler trailed for a majority of the game, being down 11 at halftime. The game wasn’t close for a majority of the second half either, being down by as much as 19 points with six minutes left in the game. At this point in just about any basketball game, almost any player, team or fan would throw in the towel, but not coach Miller’s Grizzlies. The next four minutes was one of the greatest comeback attempts that fell short. Led by freshmen John Ogugua and Immanuel Allen, the Grizzlies clawed and scratched their way back to just a five point deficit with two minutes left in regulation.
“Just keep fighting, that was the biggest message to our guys,” Assistant Coach Cameron Parker said. “As long as there is still time on the clock, we can still fight; we can still win this game. We got a couple stops and finally we got some momentum going, and as you’ve seen in the past, once we get the ball rolling and get things going our way it’s hard to stop us. And that’s what happened, unfortunately just too little too late.”
A late charge call and good free throw shooting would be Butler’s demise, eventually falling 77-70 in Colby. It was a disappointing way to end the season, but the Grizzlies have a lot to build on going into Miller’s fifth season as head coach.
“Kind of a bad way to go out, but they played hard,” Parker said. “I give our guys all the credit; they left it all out on the court. Moving forward, we’re not too worried about recruiting and who’s coming back just yet. Right now, the focus is making sure they finish strong grade wise. We had a couple guys finish over 3.5 last semester , [and] then some more over a 3.0. So that’s the biggest thing so when they’re ready to transfer their grades look good.”