More than turkey for the Bulldogs, during Thanksgiving Break

Well it seems the women's basketball team did not let the Purdue loss phase them too much, a road-trip may be exactly what they needed, and of all places - Florida. Just yesterday, 11/23, the women took on Monmouth down in Coral Gables, Fla for the University of Miami Thanksgiving Tournament. With a 63-52 win against the Hawks (just in case your curious, Monmouth is in New Jersey), the women's team is moving right along with another game today against Miami at 7 p.m. Lade Akande and Tara Miller pushed the lead against the Hawks to unreachable starting the second half with a 13-0 run. A couple of three's from Miller and seven points by Akande helped the Bulldogs keep the lead for good. The Bulldogs did not let up during the entire game which earned them their third win (3-1). Now the girls look for another win in tonight's championship game.



They are not the only Bulldogs completely away from home, the men's team is showing their skills in a state with a completely different climate (than Florida) - Alaska. The Great Alaska Shootout has so far, been going pretty well for the Bulldogs with a stomping defeat over Michigan and a challenging overtime win over Virginia Tech. The men are playing in the championship game at 12:30 a.m. ET (8:30 p.m. in Alaska). They take on Bobby Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders. Texas Tech had an upsetting win late last night over No. 14 Gonzaga, the same team Butler defeated last year to win the NIT pre-season championship. If anything, tonight's game will be just as challenging as the never-ending game last night against Virginia Tech. When it came down to the last few minutes of the game, with two strong players fouled out (Drew Streicher and Matt Howard) the Bulldogs did all they could to keep the lead for the win. All they had to do was hold the ball for the win. But with less than a minute to go and within two points of tying the game, the Hokies pressed the Bulldogs which resulted in an unfortunate turnover. This lead to the tie and a foul. Luckily for the dogs, Jeff Allen missed his possibly winning foul shot and led to overtime. The Bulldogs took over from there. Mike Green scored 12 points and Pete Campbell scored four in overtime to finish off the win.

Texas Tech is the next challenge, they controlled the tempo of the game against Gonzaga last night. Much like the Bulldogs, they take their time with the shot clock looking for the best possible shot. They are strong defensively and offensively, but so are the Bulldogs. It is anyone's game. The one advantage Texas Tech had last night was that Gonzaga was not playing to their full potential. Defensively and offensively, they were weak allowing the Red Raiders to stomp all over them. The bulldogs are stronger than that, and hopefully they are not intimidated by Bobby Knight. Make sure to watch tonight's battle on ESPN 2. Good luck to both the women's and men's teams as they compete for the championship tonight.


Picture: A.J. Graves (No. 4) had 17 points in Butler's win over Virginia Tech on Friday, Nov. 23 in the Great Alaska Shootout. Photo courtesy of Barney Arntz