Butler (5-2) vs. Texas Tech (5-1)
BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle
Thursday, Nov. 30;  6:30PM
Hinkle Fieldhouse; Indianapolis
 
Butler, after playing the last four games away from home, returns to Hinkle Fieldhouse for a five-game homestand, which includes the final four non-conference games of the season and the BIG EAST opener vs. Georgetown Dec. 19. The game will serve as a Blue Out with the Bulldogs wearing blue jerseys as part of the Blue Thursday game.
 
TV: FS1 -- Dan Hellie & Casey Jacobsen
Radio: WXNT 1430AM, Varsity Network Radio App, SiriusXM 381, SXM App 971 -- @MarkMinner & Nick Gardner (@n_gardner)
 
Series: Butler Leads, 2-0
Streak: Butler, W2
At Hinkle: 0-0
First Meeting: Butler, 81-71, 11/24/07
Last Meeting: Butler, 71-61, 3/17/16
 
The Series with the Red Raiders
• Butler's 2-0 mark over Texas Tech has included a pair of neutral-court victories.
• Butler defeated Texas Tech, 81-71, in the championship game of the 2007 Great Alaska Shootout. That was the sixth game as Butler's head coach for Brad Stevens. Bob Knight was the Texas Tech head coach at that time.
• Butler defeated Texas Tech, 71-61, in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament in Raleigh, N.C.; the Bulldogs fell to No. 1 seed Virginia in the next round.
 
Home, Sweet Hinkle
• Butler is 73-2 over its last 75 non-conference home games.
• Butler has won 11 straight non-conference home games.
• Matta is 26-7 at Hinkle Fieldhouse as the head coach at Butler (2000-01 and his current stint that began prior to the 2022-23 season).
• Butler has scored at least 80 points in all three of its home games this season (going over the 90-point mark twice)
• At home, Butler has outscored its first three opponents of the season by a combined 108 points in 120 minutes of play.
 
Of Note…
• Butler is 2-1 in the BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle. The Bulldogs defeated Kansas State at Hinkle last season and have a 2021 road win over Oklahoma. Butler lost at Baylor in 2019.
• All three teams that Butler faced in Orlando as part of the ESPN Events Invitational made the 2023 NCAA Tournament; five of Butler's seven opponents to start the season were part of the 2023 NCAA Tournament field.
• Pierre Brooks II scored a career-high 26 points in Friday's win over Penn State; he followed that with 25 points in Sunday's win over Boise State. Brooks is the first Bulldog with back-to-back 25-point games since Kelan Martin, who accomplished the feat in his final two games at Butler as part of the 2018 NCAA Tournament (27 vs. Arkansas and 29 vs. Purdue).
• Twenty of Brooks's 25 points against Boise State Sunday came in the second half; he is the first Bulldog to score 20 points in a half since Chuck Harris on March 6, 2021.
• In the three games in Orlando, Brooks shot a combined 11-for-20 from three-point range (55 percent).
• Butler shot 52 percent from the field Sunday against Boise State, the third consecutive game shooting 50 percent or better. Butler has made at least half of its attempts in four of the first seven games of the season.
• Butler's defense limited Boise State to 32-percent shooting Sunday, the fourth opponent this season that the Bulldogs held to 32-percent or lower from the field.
• Butler has committed 10 or fewer turnovers in five of the team's seven games this season.
• Butler has scored at least 80 points in five of its seven 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 seven 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 has 10 players averaging at least eight minutes played per game and only Brooks is averaging more than 30 minutes per game.
• Butler's 78.4-percent free throw percentage is 21st nationally.
• DJ Davis ranks 13th nationally in free throw percentage (95.5), through the games of Nov. 28.
• Andre Screen has made 20 of his first 27 attempts (74 percent) to begin his Butler career.
• Connor Turnbull's six blocks Nov. 13 against ETSU were one shy of the Butler single-game record.
• Jalen Thomas, Screen and Boden Kapke have combined to play 272 of a possible 280 minutes at the center spot for the Bulldogs; the trio has combined to average 15.8 points and 13.9 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.
• 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.
 
Top Team Performances
• 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.
 
Summering in Canada
• Jahmyl Telfort played for Canada's U23 team in July as part of the GLOBL JAM event in Toronto, helping the Canadians to the silver medal in the four-team event. Telfort posted 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in the gold medal game, a loss to the University of Kentucky, which represented the United States in the event. In the four games, Telfort averaged 10 points per game.
• Telfort, a transfer from Northeastern, ranked fifth in the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring in 2022-23.
 
You Must Be New Here...
• Only two players on the 2023-24 roster played in games for Butler last season (Jalen Thomas and Connor Turnbull). John-Michael Mulloy was also on the Butler roster a season ago, but didn't play due to injury.
• Butler returns only 9% of scoring (191 of 2,088 points) and 9% of minutes played (563 of 6,400) from the 2022-23 season.
• The nine scholarship players on Butler's 2023-24 roster who bring collegiate experience have combined for 237 double-figure scoring games entering the season; only eight of those games have come in a Butler uniform (all by Thomas during the 2022-23 season).
• Five of Butler's incoming transfers averaged double figures during the 2022-23 season for their respective former teams.