Opponent: Xavier or DePaul (BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinals)
Specifics: Thursday, March 9  |  7 p.m. ET  |  Madison Square Garden  |  New York, N.Y.
TV: FS1  |  Gus Johnson & Bill Raftery
Radio: 93.5 FM & 1070 AM (also streamed through TuneIn Radio App)  |  Mark Minner (play-by-play) & Nick Gardner (analyst)
Follow Along: @ButlerMBB

Full Notes (PDF)

SECOND SEASON: Butler begins the postseason at the BIG EAST Tournament with a Thursday quarterfinal contest. The Bulldogs, who earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament with a 12-6 BIG EAST mark, will play the winner of Wednesday's first round game between No. 7 seed Xavier and No. 10 DePaul. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 23-7 record. Thursday's game will air nationally on FS1.
 
Butler's 12-6 BIG EAST record ties the 2014-15 team (Chris Holtmann's first season as head coach) as Butler's best mark since joining the BIG EAST for the 2013-14 season. The 2014-15 team tied for second in the standings but entered the BIG EAST Tournament as the No. 3 seed.
 
INDIVIDUAL HONORS: A trio of Bulldogs earned All-BIG EAST honors as announced by the BIG EAST Conference Sunday, March 5. The league's 10 head coaches made the selections. Senior forward Andrew Chrabascz was selected to the first team, while junior forward Kelan Martin earned second-team honors. Kamar Baldwin was a unanimous selection to the conference's All-Freshman Team.
 
THE SERIES: While Thursday's opponent is still to be determined, Butler swept the season series against both Xavier and DePaul. In the all-time series, Xavier has a 37-20 advantage over the Bulldogs as the teams have been conference foes in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League) and for a season in the Atlantic-10 before joining the BIG EAST together four seasons ago. The Bulldogs have won seven straight in the series with DePaul and have an 8-6 series lead. The teams first met in the 1938-39 season.
 
Butler is in search of its first win in the BIG EAST Tournament. The Bulldogs enter Thursday's game with an 0-3 record.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Visiting Seton Hall closed the game on a 23-7 run to spoil Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse, taking a 70-64 win over Butler. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Bulldogs. Seton Hall opened the second half by making only four of 18 attempts from the field. In the stretch after Butler took a 57-47 lead with 7:03 to play, the Pirates made 7-of-8 down the stretch. Seton Hall shot 49 percent for the game and had a 35-24 rebounding advantage. Butler shot 52 percent in the first half, but only 31 percent in the second 20 minutes to finish at 40 percent for the game. The Bulldogs recognized their six seniors in a postgame ceremony.
 
LEADING THE WAY: For the third straight game and the seventh time this season, Kelan Martin led the Bulldogs in both scoring and rebounding in Saturday's game with Seton Hall. He finished with 19 points and six rebounds. On the season, Martin has led the team in scoring 13 times and has pulled down the team's most rebounds on 14 occasions. He has 10 20-point games on the season and his 25 points against Xavier Feb. 26 were his best performance in a BIG EAST game this season.
 
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: BIG EAST coaches picked Butler to finish sixth in the league's preseason poll this season. The Bulldogs finished second in the league standings. It is reminiscent of Chris Holtmann's first season as head coach at Butler (2014-15) when the league's coaches picked Butler to tie for seventh and the Bulldogs instead finished in a tie for second place.
 
STRONG RESUME: In Monday's RPI rankings released by the NCAA, the Bulldogs come in at No. 12. Butler's 17 wins against teams currently ranked in the RPI Top 100 (through the games of Sunday, March 5) are tied with Villanova for the national lead. The Bulldogs have nine wins against the RPI Top 50, which trails only the 10 each by Villanova, North Carolina, Duke, and Florida State. Butler is now 6-2 against ranked teams this season, including a 5-1 mark against teams that were ranked in the Top 15 at the time of the contest.
 
SOMETIMES IT'S A SIMPLE GAME: The Bulldogs shot only 40.4 percent in the Saturday loss to Seton Hall. That was tied for Butler's fourth-worst shooting performance of the season. In the team's four-game winning streak entering the Seton Hall game, the Bulldogs shot better than 50 percent in all four contests.  
 
Butler has shot 50 percent or better from the field 12 times this season. The Bulldogs are 11-1 in those games. When shooting a better percentage than its opponent, Butler is 18-0 this season and 53-2 under head coach Chris Holtmann.
 
THAT BELONGS TO US: On the season, the Bulldogs are averaging only 10.1 turnovers per game. That mark is seventh nationally. Butler had a season-low four turnovers – including none in the second half – against Marquette Jan. 16. The Bulldogs have posted 10 or fewer miscues in 15 games this season and is 12-3 in those games. One of those losses was to Seton Hall Saturday, when the Bulldogs committed only eight turnovers.
 
Butler committed a season-high 16 turnovers at Villanova Feb. 22 and still got the win. It marked the first time that Butler had committed more than 15 turnovers in 44 games, dating back to the Jan. 16, 2016 game against St. John's.
 
HEATING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME: Over the past five games, Kelan Martin is averaging 19.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. In the three games prior to this stretch, Martin averaged 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds. Martin had nine points during a decisive 18-0, second-half run for the Bulldogs at Villanova Feb. 22.
 
POINT FORWARD: For the third consecutive game, senior forward Andrew Chrabascz led the team in assists with five against Seton Hall Saturday. That comes on the heels of handing out six at Xavier after tying a career-best with eight helpers at Villanova. Chrabascz's eight assists matched the team total for Villanova. Against Villanova, Butler assisted on 21 of its 27 field goals.
 
Chrabascz ranks tenth in the BIG EAST in assists (3.2 per game). Teammate Tyler Lewis is third, averaging 4.0 assists per game.
 
OFF THE BENCH: In BIG EAST play, Butler's bench has out-scored the opponent's reserves by a combined score of 514-255, which is a 14.4-point advantage on average per game. Including a 32-8 advantage against Seton Hall Saturday, Butler's bench has out-scored the opponent's in 16 of its 18 BIG EAST games this season.
 
STOPPING A SKID: Following a loss, the Bulldogs are now 22-4 under coach Chris Holtmann. That includes a 5-1 mark this season.
 
MAGIC NUMBER: After hitting the mark in three of its last five games, Butler is now 33-1 under Chris Holtmann when scoring 80 or more points, including a 12-1 mark this season. Butler scored 50 points in the second half of its win at Xavier Feb. 26. It was the sixth time this season that the Bulldogs posted 50 or more points in a half. It was the second time against Xavier this season. Butler also put up more than 50 in both halves against St. John's Feb. 15 (110-86 win).
 
GET HOT: Avery Woodson is 18-of-32 from three-point range over his last five games. That is a 56-percent clip. Woodson leads the Bulldogs with 65 three-pointers on the season. He is tied for seventh in the BIG EAST in three-pointers made. Over that same five-game stretch, Kelan Martin has hit 48 percent from behind the arc (12-of-25). Martin is tied for 15^th in the conference at 56 made three-pointers.
 
GRAND THEFT: Butler's backcourt of Kamar Baldwin and Kethan Savage combined for nine steals in the Feb. 26 win at Xavier. Baldwin's five steals matched his career-high. It was Savage's second consecutive game with a season-best four steals. Four of those nine steals came during a decisive 15-3 run.
 
Baldwin has 51 steals so far this season, a mark that is tied for 11th on Butler's single-season list. Baldwin's 303 points this season are just outside the Top 10 for a Butler freshman (Wayne Burris ranks tenth with 304 during the 1973-74 season).
 
IN THE POLLS: The Bulldogs are ranked No. 18 in the AP poll and No. 20 in the USA Today coaches poll this week. Butler has been ranked each week since the Nov. 28, 2016 polls.
 
ON THE DEFENSIVE: The Bulldogs held Villanova to 66 points in the Feb. 22 road win. Butler is now 17-0 on the season when holding its opponent to less than 70 points. The Bulldogs are 6-7 on the season when their opponent scores 70 or more.