Butler hosts Kansas State Wednesday at Hinkle Fieldhouse as part of the BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle. The Bulldogs just returned from the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis, which featured three games in three days. Kansas State is Butler's most high-profile opponent to visit Indianapolis so far this season. K-State just won the 2022 Cayman Island Classic Championship and is 6-0 on the season.
 
Butler (4-3) vs. rv/rv Kansas State (6-0)
Wednesday, Nov. 30;  6:30PM
BIG EAST-BIG 12 Battle
Hinkle Fieldhouse
Indianapolis, Ind.
 
PDF Notes Available at https://bit.ly/3NGADRf
 
TV: FS1 & FOX Sports App - Alex Faust & Casey Jacobsen
Radio: 1430AM - @MarkMinner & Nick Gardner (@n_gardner)
Varsity Network Radio App
SiriusXM 386, SXM App 976
 
SERIES: Butler Leads, 1-0
Streak: Butler, W1
At Hinkle: 0-0
First Meeting: Butler, 63-56; 3/27/10 (2010 NCAA Elite Eight)
 
• The Bulldogs and Kansas State have met once previously, a 63-56 Butler win in the Elite Eight of the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The win in Salt Lake City earned Butler its first Final Four berth.
• The two teams were scheduled to meet as part of the BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle in 2020, but that match-up was canceled due to COVID issues within the Butler program at that point in the season.
• Butler is 1-1 in BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle contests, winning in overtime, 66-62, at Oklahoma in 2021 and suffering a 53-52 loss at Baylor in 2019. Kansas State's Jerome Tang was an assistant at Baylor for that 2019 game.
 
• Butler is 67-2 over its last 69 non-conference home games.
• Over the last four games, Jayden Taylor is averaging 18.5 points per game. He has scored at least 18 points in each of those four games and has led the Bulldogs in scoring in three of the games.
• Taylor is the only Bulldog to score in double figures in all seven of the team's games.
• In the team's most recent home game, Butler posted a 47-point win over The Citadel Nov. 19, which is the largest margin of victory by the Bulldogs since defeating Western Illinois, 107-46, at Hinkle Fieldhouse Dec. 21, 2017.
• Butler shot 70.4 percent from the field in the 95-67 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) Nov. 17; it was the second-best field goal percentage in program history, trailing only the 71.9 clip from the Nov. 15, 2014 win over Maine.
• The Nov. 19 win over The Citadel included 17 three-pointers, which was just shy of the program-record of 20 and the most since hitting 17 vs. Northern Illinois Dec. 8, 2018.
• Chuck Harris scored a team-high 20 points in the final game of the Battle 4 Atlantis against North Carolina State. It was the second 20-point game of the season for Harris and the 12th of his career.
• The Bulldogs were without DJ Hughes Friday night against North Carolina State after he suffered a concussion in Thursday's win over BYU. Butler has been without Ali Ali, John-Michael Mulloy, Jalen Thomas, and Myles Wilmoth due to injury for the entirety of the regular season thus far.
• Manny Bates is seventh nationally in blocks per game at 2.9 per game; his 64.4 field goal percentage is 25th in the NCAA.
• As a team, Butler is 19th nationally in blocks at 5.6 per game.
• Bates opened his Butler career with back-to-back double-doubles; his 25 points in the season-opener against New Orleans were a career-high.
• Bates is the first Bulldog to score at least 20 points in his Butler debut since Rotnei Clarke (21 vs. Elon in 2012).
• Harris and Taylor have combined to go 38-for-42 from the free throw line so far this season (90 percent).
• The Bulldogs committed only five turnovers in the Nov. 14 Gavitt Games loss at Penn State.
• The Bulldogs forced New Orleans into 30 turnovers in the season opener.
• Thad Matta returns to his alma mater as the head coach at Butler; he also led the Bulldogs as head coach during the 2000-01 season.
• Matta is a combined 70-26 in the first season at each of his previous head coaching stops (Butler in 2000-01, Xavier in 2001-02 and Ohio State in 2004-05), winning at least 20 games in each of those seasons.
• Butler went on a foreign tour to Italy and Greece August 2-12, winning four games abroad.
• BIG EAST coaches have voted Butler eighth in the conference's preseason poll, while Butler junior Chuck Harris was named Preseason All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention for the second consecutive season.
• Harris led Butler in scoring as both a freshman (2020-21) and a sophomore (2021-22). He looks to become the first Bulldog to lead the team in scoring in three consecutive seasons since Kellen Dunham (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16).