Butler Among the Best?

March 12th, 2010

The way Da’Sean Butler sees it, last year he got caught up in a numbers game. The forward averaged 17.1 points per game, hit 35 percent of his 3-point field goal tries, grabbed more than 200 rebounds and didn’t make the all-Big East first team.

His 43 points scored against Villanova on Feb. 20, 2008 were the most by any player in conference play since 2003.

So why was Butler caught up in the numbers game?

Well, the Big East decided to once again reduce the all-conference first team roster to five players (six were picked both last year and this year due to ties in voting) for the first time since 2005.

“I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m doing so well’ and I get picked on the second team,” said Butler. “I was like, ‘Why are they only picking five or six players?’ I kind of got discouraged, but that kind of made it a point of emphasis for me to come out and work hard every day and continually strive to get better and more consistent.”

Da’Sean’s hard work is finally paying off.

He’s averaging 17.2 points per game, shooting 35.1 percent from 3-point distance, grabbing an average of 6.3 rebounds per game, and he is tied for the team lead in assists with 99. This year, those numbers were good enough to make the all-Big East first team.

“Kudos to my team and coaches for helping me get the opportunity to be first team,” Butler said with more than a touch of modesty. “I have respect for everyone in the conference. This is the toughest conference to play in and coach in. It’s a struggle every game just trying to perform and play as hard as I can and help my team win.”

A strong case could be made that making the all-Big East first team is just like making the all-district team, considering the number of teams in the conference and the large number of great players that play in the Big East.

That is actually what happened. Eight out of the 10 selections on this year’s District II basketball team released Tuesday afternoon by the USBWA were from the Big East. One came from the Ivy League (Cornell) and the other came from the Atlantic 10 (Temple).

Butler made that team as well.

“Just the talent and the area the Big East covers ? I was overwhelmed just seeing the names of the players around me – not even just the first team but the second and the third teams as well,” Butler said. “I have so much respect for each and every team and each and every player. We play the same teams, the same schemes, the same coaches, and so on and so forth, and I’m just happy that I was selected.”

Butler is the seventh player in school history to earn first team all-Big East honors, but only the third to make a five-member all-Big East first team (Damian Owens in 1998 and Calvin Bowman in 2001 are the others) since the Mountaineers joined the conference in 1996.

What separates Butler from Owens and Bowman a little bit is the fact that Butler’s career has been spent in a 16-team league. There were 13 teams when Owens played in the Big East in 1998 and there were 14 when Bowman made the all-Big East first team in 2001.

Butler is going to end his career third in scoring behind a pair of consensus All-Americans in Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley.

West scored 2,309 points in three seasons without the benefit of a 3-point shot or a shot clock. Hundley, too, played three years without a 3-point shot or a shot clock, finishing with 2,180 points.

Butler, who has made 189 career 3s heading into the 2010 Big East tournament, needs only 43 points to join West and Hundley in the school’s very exclusive 2,000-point club.

Wil Robinson, Rod Thorn and Fritz Williams would have also made the 2,000-point club if they had played four years. Robinson scored 1,850 points and averaged 24.7 points per game for his career. Thorn finished his three-year career with 1,785 points and a career average of 21.8 points per game. Williams scored 1,687 points and had a career average of 20.1 points per game.

It’s impossible to make a comparison of the players’ career statistics because of the differences in eras, rules and styles of play. And whereas Butler has played his entire career in the best conference in the country, West, Hundley, Thorn and Williams benefited by playing against much weaker competition in the Southern Conference.

Robinson’s West Virginia teams played an independent schedule in the early 1970s and the Mountaineers struggled as a consequence, going 37-38 during Robinson’s three seasons in 1970, 1971 and 1972.

West’s teams won 81 of 93 games, Hundley 65 of 90, Thorn 70 of 88 and Williams 57 of 84.

Butler’s four-year record so far is 100-40.

And most impressively, Butler has played 37 career games against nationally ranked teams – West and Hundley each faced 11 ranked teams, Robinson 9, Thorn 8 (all of them Top 10 teams because AP only ranked Top 10 during Thorn’s career) and Williams just 2.

When folks begin talking about the best basketball players in school history, at the very least, Da’Sean Butler has earned a spot in the conversation.

By John Antonik
MSNSports

-WVU-

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