Turns out, the veteran coach did feel a little extra emotion about it after all.
Advertisement
Don’t look now but Miami is starting to slowly become a basketball town instead of the football city that most of the residents have grown to see. “But you still want to win”.
The win was career victory No. 540 for head coach Tubby Smith and enabled the Red Raiders to snap an 18-game losing streak in road/neutral court games.
“They were just in some ways the hungrier, tougher team early”, Butler coach Chris Holtmann said. With games at Cincinnati, and against Indiana State, Tennessee and Purdue in the next three-plus weeks, Butler had better get that rectified or the non-Big East portion of its schedule won’t be as smooth as the “Dawg Pound hopes”. Defensively? The two teams are pretty even, but Minnesota has been very solid at defending in the paint (10th nationally in guarding two-point shots, per Kenpom.com), while Texas Tech is only average at defending the arc. “I liked the way they competed this tournament”. Butler did a better job in the second half taking care of the ball, freeing Kellen Dunham for jump shots and attacking the offensive glass for second-chance points, but every time the Bulldogs would mount a charge, Miami had an answer. Bond entered the game averaging 16 points, but his defensive assignment on Poeltl got him in early foul trouble and he played only 13 minutes, scoring four points. The Butler Bulldogs have seven double-digit scorers and are getting to the free throw line 29 times per contest.
Despite only trailing 36-33 at the half against #16 Utah, Texas Tech fell in their first game of the tournament 73-63.
After scoring 10 points in the 75-70 loss to Temple on Thursday, King went 5-for-5 on 3s in the first 7½ minutes and added a sixth 3 after the Bears had closed the gap to 57-53 near the 9:30 mark.
Miami: Angel Rodriguez, playing in his native San Juan, had 11 points and four assists.
It’s no surprise that turnovers were the first thing Krystkowiak mentioned when he arrived at his postgame news conference.
“I give our bench credit for giving us a lift there, and Kelan was a part of that”, Holtmann said.
“That to me is truly more special than just simply winning this tournament”, Rodriguez told the AP, “to know that the guys are hungry for more”.
Texas Tech guard Devaugntah Williams, right, goes to the basket against Minnesota center Bakary Kona …
Utah found no real way to slow the Hurricanes, who shot 59 percent in the opening half and got a 3-pointer from James Palmer just before halftime for a 46-32 lead at the break.
“We weren’t driving (against) the zone as well as we should have”, Pitino said.
With that snub still likely bothering the Hurricanes, they seem to be on a mission this season to prove that they won’t be pushovers and that they are a team that should be held in the same regard as ACC stalwarts Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Notre Dame.
Miami hosts Northeastern on Friday.
Advertisement
Butler hosts SIU-Edwardsville on Saturday.
