The BYU Cougars and the Butler Bulldogs meet in college basketball action from the Imperial Arena on Thursday night.
The BYU Cougars will look to bounce back after an 82-76 loss to USC in their last game. Fousseyni Traore leads the Cougars in scoring with 12.5 PPG along with 7 RPG while Spencer Johnson has 11.3 PPG with 5.3 RPG and Gideon George has 10.5 PPG with a team-high 8.3 RPG to lead the Cougars on the glass and to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for BYU up to this point in the season. Rudi Williams also has 9.3 PPG with 3.5 RPG and a team-high 3 APG to lead BYU in the assist department up to this point in the year. As a team, BYU is averaging 72.8 points per game on 43.1% shooting from the field, 31.1% from three point range and 64.4% from the foul line so far this season.
The Butler Bulldogs will be out to bounce back after a 71-45 loss to Tennessee last time out. Chuck Harris leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 15.8 PPG along with 4.5 RPG and 3.5 APG while Jayden Taylor has 14.8 PPG with 5 RPG and Simas Lukosius has 14.3 PPG with 5 RPG and 3.8 APG this season. Manny Bates has 13.5 PPG with a team-high 8.5 RPG to lead Butler in the rebounding department this season while Eric Hunter Jr. has 12.5 PPG with 4 APG to lead Butler in assists and to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Butler so far this season. As a team, Butler is averaging 76 points per game on 49.7% shooting from the field, 33.6% from behind the arc and 69.9% from the foul line so far this season.
I get the reasoning for backing either side in this game, but I’m sticking with BYU here. I just don’t think this is a very good Butler team and I think what we saw from Butler on Wednesday is just a sample of what we will get from the Bulldogs in Big East conference play. BYU just looks to be the better team here and I’ll side with the Cougars to get the job done in this one.