It had to happen sometime. Butler hadn’t lost a Horizon League game since March 2009. It hadn’t lost a regular-season conference game since Feb. 18, 2009. Nobody – unless you’re Memphis – goes multiple seasons without losing a conference game.
That said, a 24-point loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee wasn’t what I would’ve expected from the Bulldogs Monday night. They didn’t either.
“We didn’t come out like we should have, and like we have been able to the last couple of games,” senior Matt Howard told the Indianapolis Star. “That was pretty disappointing. We lacked energy. I don’t know what it was, or why it was.”
Everything went wrong for Butler. The Bulldogs missed shots, didn’t guard and got into foul trouble. Hell, even normally cool-as-a-cucumber coach Brad Stevens got a technical.
“We got beaten just soundly in every way you could be beaten tonight,” Stevens said.
The loss takes a little luster off Friday’s showdown with Cleveland State – the Horizon League favorite – but shouldn’t detract from what’s been an impressive Butler run the last 22 games.
It just feels like it to the Bulldogs.
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