No. 13 Butler rolls into big East play against St. John's (Dec 29, 2016)
St. John's and No. 13 Butler open their Big East season when they meet Thursday at Carnesecca Arena on the St. John's campus in New York.
Butler (11-1) has posted two impressive wins over No. 18 Arizona (69-65) and No. 16 Indiana (72-71) as well as knocking off then-No. 22 Cincinnati (72-65). The Bulldogs have defeated their opponents by an average of 14.5 points.
"If I said, 'Naw, I expected this,' you would say you're full of crap," Butler coach Chris Holtmann said. "I am (surprised). I think we also recognize that league play is a different animal, but to say we expected to go 11-1, given our schedule, with this many new guys, I'd say I'm surprised."
Butler was picked to finish sixth in the conference in the preseason coaches poll. St. John's was chosen eighth.
This is the eighth matchup between the programs. The first meeting came in the 1958 NIT and the last six have been since Butler joined the Big East before the 2013-14 season. Butler has won the last four meetings and holds a 4-3 lead in the series.
St. John's (6-7) is coming off a rousing 93-60 win over Syracuse on Dec. 21. It was the worst loss suffered by Syracuse in the history of the Carrier Dome.
The win marked the first time that St. John's has won three in a row against Syracuse since 1993 and the lopsided affair was good enough for the second largest margin of victory over the Orange for the Red Storm in the 104-year history of the series.
"It was a good game, (but) we need to focus on being more consistent," St. John's coach Chris Mullin said. "Each game takes another tone and its own personality so it's on us to impose our will and our personality on that particular game.
"Butler is a really good team. They're solid up and down, and they don't turn the ball over. They have solid players at every position and they play well together, so we have a really tough game coming up and it's going to be important we play 40 minutes."
The Red Storm feature guard Shamorie Ponds, who picked up the National Freshman of the Week award after depositing 21 points with seven assists, six rebounds and four steals in the victory over Syracuse.
Forward Kelan Martin has led the Bulldogs in scoring in seven of the team's 12 games this season. He has scored 20 or more points in six of those games, including four of the last five as he has averaged 22.2 during that stretch.
Butler shot 57 percent from the field in the win over Vermont in its last outing.
Including five times this season, Butler is 23-0 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field under Holtmann, who picked up his 100th win at the school in the 81-69 victory over Vermont on Dec. 21.
Butler is shooting 49.5 percent from the field this season, which ranks 22nd nationally.
