Roosevelt Jones recovering well following off-season surgery

Butler junior small forward Roosevelt Jones unfortunately didn't have a choice in the matter, but will be missing the entire 2013-14 Butler Bulldog men's basketball season. His surgery took place on Thursday, August 22 in Indianapolis.

Jones incidentally fell on his left wrist during Butler's first exhibition contest in Australia against the Norths Bears in early August and was held out of the remaining three games in the Bulldogs' trip. Upon Butler's return to Indianapolis, Jones was examined further and doctors determined that surgery was in fact necessary.

The 6'4 junior is Butler's top returner statistically in points (10.1), rebounds (5.6) and assists (3.5). It will be quite a hit on both ends of the court for first-year head coach Brandon Miller, as he'll attempt to take off right where Brad Stevens left things when Stevens jaunted off to the NBA to coach the Boston Celtics.

Roosevelt started all 36 games for Butler in 2012-13 and 31 as a freshman during 2011-12. That streak will come to an end with Jones' absence from the BU lineup this winter.

Brandon Miller will look further down his roster to veteran guys like Khyle Marshall (6'6), Kameron Woods (6'9) and Erik Fromm (6'8), who are all projected starters now, to pick up Jones' on-court production. Also in the mix to help make up for Jones on the court will be freshmen Nolan Berry (6'10) and Andrew Chrabascz (6'7).

Butler forward Roosevelt Jones to miss season with injury

Butler's recent trip to Australia brought and many positives and also some negatives for the upcoming Bulldog season. Unfortunately, the biggest negative wasn't that Butler lost the final two of their four game exhibition tour by 39 and 24 points, respectively.

The biggest negative to come out of the Australian tour was a season-ending wrist injury in the first game to junior small forward Roosevelt Jones (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon).

Jones has torn ligaments in his left wrist and it has already been determined that he'll miss the entire 2013-14 season.

The Bulldogs will certainly miss his 10.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest, but as per usual, someone will be called upon off the Butler bench and will do whatever it takes to replace Jones' production.

Head coach Brandon Miller will definitely have some other tricks up his sleeve than he originally was prepared for with the absence of Jones in the starting lineup.

With 6'8 senior Erik Fromm (Bloomington, IN/South), 6'6 senior Khyle Marshal (Davie, FL/Flanagan) and 6'9 junior Kameron Woods (Louisville, KY/Eastern) penciled in as the starting frontcourt for the Bulldogs, we should be seeing more youth come up off the bench, adding just that much more depth for the 2013-14 version of Butler Bulldog basketball.

Two freshman will be where Miller turns to rotate into the lineup to give the three aforementioned forwards. Nolan Berry (St. Louis/De Smet) stands at 6'10 and Andrew Chrabascz helps beef up the Bulldog frontcourt at 6'7.

Time will tell what kind of scheme Brandon Miller and his coaching staff will come up with to replace the offensive leadership and defensive prowess of Jones.

Bulldogs fall to Cairns Taipans in Australian trip finale

For the second game in a row on their four-game Australia trip, Butler found itself in a hole that they couldn’t dig themselves out of. The Cairns Taipans took advantage of their lull by the Bulldogs and ran away with a 97-73 win in the Sunday exhibition contest with Butler.

Cairns was up 14-12 early and closed out the first period with a 14-6 run to push the lead to 28-18 after the first 10 minutes.

The Bulldogs took the second quarter 22-20, but were still down by a 48-40 count at halftime.

Butler's offense fell flat in the third frame, as they were dominated 25-12 and Cairns distanced themselves from the Bulldogs for a 73-52 deficit.

Cairns Taipans held Butler in-check for the final quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-21 to win going away by a final margin of 24 points, 97-73.

Once again, Butler's leading scorer was sophomore Kellen Dunham (Pendleton, IN/Pendleton Heights) tying with a game-high 16, just as he did on Saturday versus the Australian National team. Seniors Erik Fromm (Bloomington, IN/South) and Khyle Marshall (Davie, FL/Flanagan) continued their steady contributions in starting roles, both putting up 13 points. Freshman Andrew Chrabascz (Portsmouth, RI/Cushing Academy) found himself in the frontcourt rotation against Cairns Taipans. The 6'7, 205 pound frosh chipped in eight points, while Kameron Woods (Louisville, KY/Eastern) grabbed seven boards for the second consective game, while also scoring four.

Alex Loughton tied Dunham with a game-high 16 points to lead the Taipans. They were also able to get Cameron Tragardh (15), Clint Steindl (13) and Mitch Young (11) into double-figures. 

It was a tough two games in a 24-hour span. Losing 96-57 to the Australian National Team on Saturday, Butler turned around on Sunday and matched up with Cairns Taipans of the National Basketball League of Australia. On one hand, playing against international professional players will only help the Butler Bulldogs as they enter their first season as a member of the Big East conference. On the other hand,

Head coach Brandon Miller, along with his staff and players will spend a couple more days sight-seeing and will head home on Wednesday, August 14th to Indianapolis.

Australian Boomers blow out Butler

It may be exhibition basketball, but the Butler Bulldogs had no intention of losing at all on this Australian trip. The Australian Boomers, who are the Australian National Team, took advantage of its own good shooting and downed Butler in Canberra, 96-57.

The Boomers were in complete control from the opening tip. Jumping out to a 23-9 advantage, they extended the lead to 33-11. Butler made their best push to close out the first half, going on a 21-14 run to somewhat narrow the gap to 47-32 at halftime.

The Australian Boomers continued their dominance throughout the second half by outscoring Butler 49-25 on the way to a 39-point drubbing of the Bulldogs.

There are reasons that the Australian Boomers are in fact the national basketball team of Australia. They compete heavily in FIBA and World Championships year after year, as well as being right up there in contention for Olympic medals every four years.

Current San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills, along with Joe Ingles, led the Boomers with a game-high 17 points each. Luke Nevill added 14 and former Valparaiso player Ryan Broekhoff chipped in 12. Shooting 53% overall and 42% from beyond-the-arc, the Australian Boomers seemed to have no trouble in holding Butler in-check for 40 minutes.

Kellen Dunham was the leading scorer for the Bulldogs with a team-high 16 points, while Erik Fromm, Nolan Berry and Khyle Marshall each pitched in seven point apiece. Kameron Woods was able to grab seven rebounds.

Butler makes its fourth and final stop on their trip in Cairns to take to the hardwood with the Cairns Taipans on Sunday, August 11.

Butler rallies to defeat Sydney Kings

Butler
knew this exhibition trip to Australia wouldn't be an easy one, which is a big reason why they decided to take such an adventure. The Bulldogs improved to 2-0 in Australia and escaped with an 82-76 victory in comeback fashion, thanks to solid play from the starters and a few nice surprises off the bench.

Down 19-16 after the first period and 43-37 at half, head coach Brandon Miller made some adjustments and his Bulldogs outscored the Sydney Kings 45-33 in the final two quarters.
The Sydney Kings may have gotten three players to score 18-plus points, but it was Butler's consistent scoring from its starters and a few key members off the bench that fueled the second half takeover.

James Harvey of the Sydney Kings led all with a game-high 20 points, while Brad Hill had 19 and Tom Garlepp added 18 points, four boards and three blocks. Jarred Weeks (8) and Ben Allen (6) accounted for the rest of SK's points.

The Kings kept themselves afloat mainly by knocking down 28 of their 36 free throw attempts (78%). A dismal 4-of-17 from the three-point line (24%) played a big part in their second half collapse.

Butler had a pretty balanced scoring attack, mainly from 4/5 of its starting five. Erik Fromm produced another great game with a team-high 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Khyle Marshall put together a smooth display with 14 points and 7 rebounds, while nailing six of his eight attempts from the floor. Kameron Woods had a double-double, scoring 11 points and bringing down 15 rebounds to go along with three assists and a pair of blocks. Kellen Dunham didn't shoot well at all, but still was able to get himself into double-digit scoring with 10 points. Dunham surely has the green light to shoot at-will, but was 5-for-22 overall and a disappointing 0-of-11 from three-point range.

Even with the game being close throughout, Miller hesitated none is utilizing every bit of his bench. The Bulldogs were able to get 29 points off the bench, almost duplicating their bench play (31 points) in Tuesday's win over Norths Bears.

The coming home party for Jackson Aldridge got even better in Butler's second game of the tour. He scored 11 points in just 17 minutes of action off the bench.

Devontae Morgan pitched in with seven points, four rebounds and three steals. Freshman Elijah Brown (Los Angeles, CA/Mater Dei), son of Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown, had six points on a couple field goals. Andrew Smeathers (3) and Andrew Chrabascz (2) rounded out Butler's scoring. Rene Castro, Michael Volovic, Elliot Kampen, Nolan Berry and Steven Bennett all played, but did not score.

One thing that wasn't addressed following Tuesday's win over Norths Bears was the injury to junior Roosevelt Jones. He left their trip-opening win with an injury to his left wrist and was forced to sit out. Jones' status is uncertain for the remaining two games of the Australian tour.

Next on the exhibition slate for Butler is the Australian National Team called the Canberra Boomers. This is where things could get interesting on the trip. The Boomers have four players that could pose quite a test for the Bulldogs. One good thing is that they're pretty familiar with former Saint Louis forward Cody Ellis, as they faced him three different times in Atlantic 10 play this past season. Recent St. Mary's grad Matthew Dellavedova is also on the Canberra roster. They also have a little NBA flavor with a couple San Antonio Spurs in Patrick "Patty" Mills (Indigenous Australia/St. Mary's) and Aron Baynes (Gisborne, New Zealand/Washington State).

Butler and Canberra will take to the court in Canberra against the Australian National Team on Saturday, August 10.

Butler starts Aussie trip with win over Norths Bears

The Butler Bulldogs got things off on the right foot in the first game of their exhibition trip to Australia. Brandon Miller's first coaching experience with Butler produced a 77-65 victory over Norths Bears.

On a normal person's 18-hour flight where they cross many time zones and gain 12 hours in the process, it's going to cause a good amount of jet lag. That wasn't the case for Miller's Bulldogs. This game vs. Norths Bears came just one day after landing in the "land down under."

The Bulldogs were somewhat refreshed to be back on the court playing actual games, but it wasn't easy. They were playing four 10 minute periods, which obviously still equals out to a 40 minute college game. It took time, but Butler found a way and climbed out of the hole that Norths had them in from the start.

Norths led from the start 11-4, but BU brought it back to down just eight, trailing 25-17 after one.
The second quarter belonged to Butler. They put together a much improved frame by taking a 20-12 advantage to tie things up at 37-37 at halftime.

Butler took over in the second half and was able to get a lot of bench play into taking Norths Bears out of their home comfort zone. The Bulldogs took the second 40 minutes 40-28 to eventually cruise to a 77-65 victory.

Jackson Aldridge, a junior from Sydney, Australia, got the chance to not only play in his home land, but got the start at the point guard slot. Aldridge scored two points while dishing out three assists. Sophomore Kellen Dunham (left) (Pendleton, IN/Pendleton Heights) led all scorers with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-16 field goals, including converting five of his 11 three-point attempts.

Junior Roosevelt Jones (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon), senior Khyle Marshall (Davie, FL/Flanagan) and Erik Fromm (Bloomington, IN/South) also started with Aldridge and Dunham. Fromm was Butler's 2nd leading scorer with 14 point and six boards, shooting 6-of-11 from the floor. Marshall pitched in with 8 points and 7 rebounds, while Jones played just four minutes and didn't score.

Freshman Nolan Berry (St. Louis, MO/De Smet) knocked in nine points on four field goals, while junior Andrew Smeathers (Bargersville, IN/Center Grove) had eight off the Bulldog bench. Junior Alex Barlow (Springboro, OH/Moeller) added five points and five boards. Classmate Kameron Woods (Louisville, KY/Eastern) had four points and 10 rebounds, while freshman guard Rene Castro (Milton, MA/Worcester Academy) and sophomore Devontae Morgan (Tampa, FL/Tampa Prep) to help round out Butler's 31 bench points.

Nick Blair led Norths Bears with a team-high 21 points, with Michael Rowley scoring 13 and Daniel Young adding 10.

Butler's next exhibition game will be this Thursday, August 8 against the Sydney Kings at 7 p.m. ET. The radio broadcast can be heard on the Sydney Kings' team site, www.sydneykings.com.

Bulldogs to get head start with Australian exhibitions

New Butler head coach Brandon Miller is getting a chance to do something that almost no other coach in college basketball gets to do with his team before the school year starts. Miller and the Bulldogs have been practicing away since July 21st in preparing for their team's trip to Australia.

The Bulldog players and coaching staff left the Indianapolis International Airport for an 18-hour flight to Sydney, Australia, where they will get the opportunity to spend 11 days on Aussie soil.

Their first week, Butler will play four different exhibition contests in five days between August 6 and 11th.

Butler opens play against the Norths Bears Invitational Team in Sydney on Tuesday, August 6th at 4 p.m. After a day off, they'll continue the exhibition tour in Sydney with a game versus the Sydney Kings at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 8th.

For the remaining two exhibition matchups, they'll be traveling to a couple other cities to play. On, Saturday, August 10th, the Australian Boomers will play host to Butler in Canberra. This game with the Australian Boomers will be a game that is not open or available to the public. For the fourth and final game on the Australian trip exhibition slate, the Bulldogs will head to Cairns to face Cairns Taipans at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 11.

All 16 members of the 2013-14 Butler Bulldog men's basketball team are making the trip to Australia. Khyle Marshall, Alex Barlow and Roosevelt Jones are the three starters that return from last season's 27-9 squad that advanced to the NCAA Tournament's third-round, but were ousted by Marquette, 74-72.

That trio is joined by experienced returning letter winners Kellen Dunham, Kameron Woods and Erik Fromm, along with Jackson Aldridge, Andrew Smeathers, Devontae Morgan and Elliot Kampen,

Coach Miller has quite the recruiting class that gets to start their collegiate careers in grand fashion with this Australian trip.  The freshman class of Michael Volovic, Steven Bennett, Elijah Brown, Rene Castro, Nolan Berry and Andrew Chrabascz are going to be exposed to opponents like they've never faced before.

With the amount of experience coming back for Butler, it's going to be very interesting to see how these four exhibitions turn out and what kind of lineups Brandon Miller uses against the different Aussie teams.

A trip like this for a team can only turn into something good in the long run. For Butler, it's going to be all about how this version of Butler basketball can and will build team chemistry and bond together. Spending 11 days in a foreign land with only their teammates and coaches is going to be a tremendous way to mesh this group in the best way possible, in hopes that it will produce big-time results on the court.

Butler hasn't made a trip overseas since the summer of 2009. That summer, the Bulldogs made a similar trip to Italy. The results of that exhibition trip now speaks volumes of what can become of this kind of team adventure. As history unveiled itself, the 2009-10 season proved to become something that was nothing short of special in Butler basketball history. Going 18-0 in Horizon League play and compiling an astounding overall record of 33-5, Butler was one Gordon Hayward half court bank shot away from winning the 2010 NCAA National Championship over Duke. But, Hayward's shot was just off the mark and Duke escaped Butler for a 61-59 win.

Regardless of that outcome in 2010 against Duke or the 2011 National Championship loss to Connecticut, Butler seems to figure out how to get closer as a team, in order to strive to achieve its goals. Only time will tell what this trip to Australia will hold for this Butler Bulldog team.

Chris Holtmann joins Butler staff as an assistant

There are some head coaches that would be completely against taking another job and dropping down to being an assistant coach. This isn't the case with Butler's newest assistant coach, Chris Holtmann.

Holtmann joined Brandon Miller's staff in mid July to complete the coaching staff. The past three seasons, Holtmann was the head coach at Division I Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

The 41 year-old Holtmann took the Runnin' Bulldogs under his wing and rebuilt them in the past three seasons. The season before his takeover at the helm, GWU managed just eight wins in the 2009-10 campaign. Last season was a complete change with winning a Gardner-Webb school record at the Division I level of 21 wins. That got GW into the post-season CollegeInsider.com tournament this past March.

Holtmann was named the Big South Conference's Coach of the Year, leading Gardner-Webb to winning 10 of their final 11 regular season games.

Prior to his three-year stint at Gardner-Webb, Holtmann was an assistant at Ohio University for current Illinois head coach John Groce. To his credit, he was on Groce's staff when the 14-seed Bobcats shocked 3-seeded Georgetown in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Before his time with Groce, Holtmann was an assistant at Gardner-Webb, four of those years as the Associate Head Coach.

Holtmann played his college basketball at Taylor University, where he became an NAIA All-American. As a guard for the Trojans, he led 25-9 Taylor to the #1 ranking and a spot in the NAIA National Tournament in the 1993-94 season.

Earning his psychology degree in 1994 from Taylor, he also obtained his Master's degree in athletics administration from Ball State University in 2000.

The Butler Bulldog family proudly welcomes Chris Holtmann and his family to Indianapolis and Butler University.