The Butler Bulldog basketball team can never have enough guards to cycle in and out of its lineup. Two incoming freshmen preferred walk-ons will occupy the two remaining spots on the 2013-14 men's basketball roster.
Carmel's Michael Volovic and New Castle's Steven Bennett are the newest proud members of the Butler basketball program and its storied history. Both are currently taking summer classes at Butler and practicing in preparation for the Bulldogs' exhibition trip and tour of Australia in August.
Michael Volovic comes highly recommended off of a stellar high school career at Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana, a north side suburb of Indianapolis. He was a very key part in guiding Carmel to back-to-back Indiana Class 4A state championships in 2011-12 and 2012-13. The 5'9 guard scored 14.3 per game and knocked down an astounding 46.3% from three-point range as a senior. Volovic led the Greyhounds to a 25-2 record and a #1 ranking throughout most of his senior year. Carmel was 58-19 in Volovic's three-year varsity career, while he led the freshmen team to a 21-0 mark in 2009-10. Michael capped off his senior campaign by being named to the AP All-State squad and was picked to be a memer of the Indiana All-Star team.
Steven Bennett continues the New Castle High School pipeline with Butler Bulldog basketball. Bennett joins a great list of Trojan guards at Butler that extends back the last decade-plus. Chase Stigall (2009-13), Zach Hahn (2007-11), Bruce Horan (2002-06), Brandon Miller (2000-03) and Darnell Archey (1999-03) are the handful of long-range shooters from New Castle that Bennett follows in the footsteps of to continue the New Castle-Butler pipeline.
As a senior, Bennett improved his numbers to average 17.6 points and 4.6 assists per game, with nearly a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, while shooting 42% from 3-pt range. He's been quite the quality guard for the New Castle Trojans the past four seasons, helping guide them to a 60-26 record. Steven tore his ACL and patella tendon late in his junior season.
Volovic and Bennett have their work cut out for sure. With a backcourt of Alex Barlow at point guard and Kellen Dunham sliding into Rotnei Clarke's shooting guard starting role, playing time will be hard to come by, especially with these two being walk-ons. But, this only adds depth to the Butler Bulldog roster and adding these two Indiana products makes the bench even better.
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