Heading into a our seventh and to this date most important Horizon League basketball contest Tomorrow night against Cleveland State (12-5, 5-0) the mens basketball team is healthy, a number 12 ranking, and has arguably the most improved frontcourt in the country. And I STILL dont think that we have seen our best Butler basketball team on the hardwood yet.

A.J. Graves exploded early in the year in winning the Great Alaskan Shootout, all three games he scored at least 17 points in. He kept Butler in the game against Ohio St. with his timely 3-point shooting and 14 point effort. Against Florida St. and Bradley he put up 25 and 21 respecively. However, in six games of conference play, Graves has scored double figures in but TWO of them, his Horizon League high of 13 vs Wisc. Green Bay on January 10th. I'd like to hope that Graves is for real, and the NBA potential type player that many thought he was early in the season. I'd like to think that Horizon League opponents haven't figured his game out and the way to play night night and night in grueling conference play. So therefore, A.J. Graves has yet to put together his best basketball game this season. Once he can do that, and stops forcing his shot and lets the game come to him it will make everyone, including senior gaurd Mike Green (the teams leading scorer, rebounder and assist man) that much better. And that's a scary thought.

Butler, a 16-1 basketball team, does not yet have an identity. That's a scary thought too, considering we have four players in double figures. Are we an inside team or outside team. It seems that the Bulldogs have not put together a game yet in which one has stepped up and not the other. Recently it's been the play inside of freshman Matt Howard who has scored atleast 13 points the last eight games, and Mike Green who has seemed to knife through any defender that he wants to in the paint. To start the year it was all the outside shooting of Graves, Pete Campbell, and Julian Betko. All three have yet to be on the same page on the same night as well. Betko has scored only 11 points in the last five games.

The one thing that we could count on has always been our foul shooting though right? Saturday against Milwaukee the Bulldogs shot a woeful 8-15 from the line.

The good news is that we repeatedly are finding different ways to win a basketball game. And once the Bulldogs find that identity, the sky is the limit for this veteran team.