Butler (4-2) vs. Boise State (3-2)
2023 ESPN Events Invitational
Sunday, Nov. 26;  4PM
Orlando, Fla.
 
TV: ESPN2 - Doug Sherman & King McClure
Radio: WXNT 1430AM, Varsity Network Radio App - @MarkMinner & Nick Gardner (@n_gardner)
  
Series with Boise State: First Meeting
 
• Butler and Boise State meet Sunday in the fifth-place game of the ESPN Events Invitational; both teams are 1-1 so far in the event.
• Pierre Brooks II scored a career-high 26 points in Friday's win over Penn State; he went 9-for13 from the field and hit a career-best five three-pointers.
• The 26 points by Brooks were the most by a Butler player so far this season.
• Sixteen of Jahmyl Telfort's 18 points against Penn State came in the second half.
• Butler has shot exactly 50 percent in each of its games in Orlando (against both Florida Atlantic and Penn State).
• Butler has scored at least 80 points in five of its six games to start the season; the Bulldogs only hit the 80-point mark six times total a season ago.
• Butler's balanced attack has seen at least five players score in double figures in four of the team's six games to start the season.
• Nine different Bulldogs have scored in double figures in at least one game so far at this early point of the season. Brooks is the only Bulldog who has scored at least 10 points in each game so far this season.
• Butler's 78.3-percent free throw percentage is 23rd nationally.
• Butler has 10 players averaging at least nine minutes played per game and only Brooks is averaging more than 30 minutes per game.
• Both Posh Alexander (vs. SEMO Nov. 10) and DJ Davis (vs. Florida Atlantic Thursday) have scored their 1,000th career collegiate point so far this season; Alexander also swiped his 200th career steal Nov. 13 vs. ETSU.
• Andre Screen is shooting 76.2 percent over the first six games of his Butler career.
• Connor Turnbull had six blocks Nov. 13 against ETSU, doubling his career-high. That total was one shy of the Butler single-game record.
• Turnbull ranks 22nd nationally at 2.40 blocks per game (through Nov. 24).
• Davis ranks 21st nationally in free throw percentage (95.0), through the games of Nov. 24.
• Davis pulled down a career-high seven rebounds in Friday's win over Penn State.
• Landon Moore matched his career-high with four made three-pointers against ETSU Nov. 13.
• Jalen Thomas, Screen and Boden Kapke have combined to play 232 of a possible 240 minutes at the center spot for the Bulldogs; the trio has combined to average 16.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per game.
• The 86 points scored by the Bulldogs in Thursday's loss to No. 19/20 Florida Atlantic were the most by Butler in a loss since a 90-87 loss to No. 21 Seton Hall Jan. 6, 2018.
• The Bulldogs forced ETSU into 19 turnovers and converted those into 36 points Nov. 13.
• No ETSU player reached double figures, the first time that Butler's defense has accomplished that since the Feb. 29, 2020 win over DePaul.
• Butler limited SEMO to 29-percent shooting in the Nov. 10 win; the Bulldogs last held an opponent under 30 percent Jan. 1, 2023 at Georgetown.
• The Bulldogs went to the line 34 times, making 26 against SEMO. That is more makes and attempts than Butler had in any game last season.
• The 60 second-half points by the Bulldogs against Eastern Michigan in the season opener were the most in a half by Butler dating back to a 63-point performance in the second half of a Jan. 16, 2017 game against Marquette.
• Entering the season, Thad Matta has won 453 games in his 18 seasons as a head coach, which averages out to 25.2 wins per season.