EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Shelvin Mack walked out of the Butler locker room without any limp, grimace or apparent discomfort.
That was not the case 30 minutes earlier. And it was Mack's inability to shake debilitating leg cramps that has the Bulldogs concerned following an 82-70 loss to No. 1 Duke on Saturday.
Butler was down 45-44 with 12:57 remaining in the second half when Mack launched a 3-pointer. Mack had been effective to that point, scoring 11 points, making 5 of 9 shots, and keeping defending national champion Duke on its heels.
Then the leg cramps came. Mack was helped by a Butler trainer who spent a solid 15 minutes working on the junior guard. Eventually, Mack put on sweats and was done for the day. And so, too, were the Bulldogs as it turned out.
The one-point deficit became 10 quickly as Duke freshman guard Kyrie Irving (prior to stubbing his right toe) got hot. And even though the Bulldogs cut the lead to four points behind Shawn Vanzant's 3s, Butler couldn't make it all the way back.
The national title rematch turned out to much less dramatic than last April’s affair in Indianapolis, but Butler now has some uncertainty related to Mack’s injury.
"We’re trying to figure it out," Mack said. "I was drinking a lot of water and my urine is clear. It was real painful. I couldn't stand up. My leg just locked. I felt like someone shot me or something."
Duke guard Nolan Smith said that as soon as Mack was out his "defensive assignment was gone." Duke senior forward Kyle Singler added that "Mack is their leader, their best player and without him on the court we thought it was definitely much easier to guard them. They're a different team just like us but they can beat any team in the country by how well they play and how well they are coached."
"It was very disappointing," Mack said. "I'm doing everything they ask me to do, getting a lot of potassium in me. I just have to figure it out."
This isn't the first time Mack has had cramping issues, but it's also not a consistent problem.
"I don't know," coach Brad Stevens said about how to solve the problem. "That's the honest truth. It's not like it keeps happening. It is rare."
"It's pretty concerning that it has happened," said Butler senior forward Matt Howard. "He's a teammate, a brother and I don't want to see him go through it. It's frustrating for him and a little bit frustrating for us. It's pretty concerning. But we can't make excuses."
Butler came into the Duke game feeling like it was whole again once guard Ronald Nored was cleared earlier Saturday. Nored missed the last two games -- an overtime home loss to Evansville and a Horizon League opening road win at Loyola (Chicago) -- due to concussion symptoms that occurred the previous week in a win at Siena.
The Bulldogs were healthy for the opener at Louisville but didn't meet the challenge that night. But Butler was in step with the top-ranked Blue Devils until Mack went down. The Bulldogs led at times in the first half, were deadlocked at 33-33 at halftime and survived a foul-plagued first half by Howard. And they got contributions from Vanzant, Zach Hahn, Garrett Butcher, Chase Stigall and Andrew Smith, which proved that Butler is deeper than projected.
"We're still trying to figure things out," Hahn said. "Shelvin’s cramping and Matt's foul trouble hurt and [Duke] made big shots down the stretch. We're just as close as we are far away. The margin of error between a victory and defeat is so little for us. We've got to get more focused on the details."
That's because the schedule doesn't get much easier. Butler goes to Xavier Thursday, hosts Mississippi Valley State and then Stanford before heading to Honolulu for the Diamond Head Classic opener against Utah.
"I told our guys that if we wait to get better the road gets tougher," Stevens said. "You don't have time to relax. And that's good because we need to get better."
In the other locker room, Duke figured out that it can't take anybody lightly, either. It has been a long two weeks for the Blue Devils: from Kansas City for the CBE Classic (versus Marquette and Kansas State) to Portland (versus Oregon) and then back to Durham for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge headline game against Michigan State.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski implored the Blue Devils during timeouts to have a sense of urgency.
"Butler came out and attacked us," Singler said. "We just weren't strong enough mentally with our play. We didn't play great but we played well enough to win and sometimes that's how it goes."
The Blue Devils did not dominate the backboard, could not beat the Bulldogs off the dribble much or get out in transition. There were open looks that did not go down early that seemed to fall late. Irving also was ineffective in the first half but nailed three 3s in the second to finish with 21 points after scoring 31 against the Spartans.
"We have to take everyone's best punch," said Irving, who was limping after the game and said he sprained his right toe. "We have to remain tough. They're a tough team and you have to give them credit. They got two quick charges on me, they clogged the lane and it was hard to penetrate. We needed this early collection of games. We’re definitely growing as a team."
Duke will most certainly will struggle on the road in the ACC and it will need to respond accordingly, just like it did Saturday.
"Early on we didn't have the energy and they had the bigger chip on their shoulder," Smith said. "They had tons of confidence when we did respond. We're going to have find our energy on the road to get the team going."
Butler, too, is going to be pushed in every significant game going forward, whether it is healthy or not. And while the Bulldogs were not able to finish this game, they did discover that they might just be on the right path toward being an NCAA tournament pest yet again.
"We will be really good, no doubt," Nored said. "This isn't what Butler is at all."
Francisco Cervelli Chad Moeller Jorge Posada Lance Berkman Reegie Corona Juan Miranda
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen