Bulldogs Earn Men’s Basketball Academic Recognition

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- Butler men’s basketball players Ronald Nored and Andrew Smith have been named to the 2011-12 Honors Court by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.  The NABC Honors Court recognizes collegiate basketball student-athletes who excelled in academics during the 2011-12 season.

Nored, a senior Early Childhood/Middle Childhood Education major, earned second team Capital One Academic All-America recognition in 2011-12, while helping Butler to a 22-15 campaign and a berth in the semifinals of the 2012 College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament.  He led the Bulldogs with a school-record 193 assists, while finishing fourth on the team in scoring.

Smith, a junior business major, was Butler’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in 2011-12.  He played in all 37 games, including 36 as a starter, and he wound up ranked seventh in the Horizon League in field goal percentage (.525).  He’ll enter his final season in sixth place on Butler’s all-time list for field goal shooting.  

The NABC Honors Court pays tribute to the hard work collegiate basketball players exhibit in the classroom.  To be named to the Honors Court, an athlete must academically be a junior or senior and a varsity player with a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher.  The student-athletes must have completed at least one year at their current institution.

ESPN Announces 2012 College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon Schedule

Butler will play in one of the marquee match-ups in the 2012 ESPN Tip-Off Marathon, announced on Wednesday (July 11).  The Marathon will feature 11 games over 24 hours on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

The Bulldogs will face Xavier in the ninth game of the Marathon at 4 p.m. (ET).  The two Atlantic 10 Conference foes will square off in an unusual non-conference game at Xavier’s Cintas Center.  The two teams will meet again in a conference game later in the season at Butler.

ESPN will begin the Marathon at midnight (ET) with West Virginia visiting Gonzaga.  Davidson will play at New Mexico at 2 a.m., Houston Baptist will be at Hawaii at 4 a.m., Stony Brook will play at Rider at 6 a.m., and Northern Illinois will be at Valparaiso at 8 a.m.

The schedule will continue with Harvard at Massachusetts at 10 a.m., Temple at Kent State at noon and Detroit at St. John’s at 2 p.m.  The Butler-Xavier game will lead into ESPN’s College GameDay show, which will be followed by the Champions Classic doubleheader from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  Michigan State will face Kansas in the first game at 7 p.m., and will be followed by the final game of the day between Duke and Kentucky.