Butler up to eighth in both men's basketball polls

Feb. 18, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Indianapolis, Ind. -- Butler University's men's basketball team has carried the Horizon League banner into the national spotlight throughout the last two years.. On Monday (Feb. 18), the Bulldogs wrote a new chapter in the history books with their status as the eighth-ranked team in the nation.

The 31 voters in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll installed Butler in that position shortly after noon on Monday, with the 72 writers in the Associated Press national poll following suit three hours later.Butler carries a 24-2 record into the week, standing atop the Horizon League standings with a 13-2 League ledger prior to Wednesday's (Feb. 20) game at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Bulldogs have won eight consecutive games---posting their third eight-game streak of the season---including Saturday's (Feb. 16) 51-46 victory over Cleveland State University.

Butler became the first team in League history to ascend to the top ten on Feb. 5, 2007 (tenth in the AP poll, ninth according to ESPN/USA Today voters), and has been among the top 20 teams for the last 13 weeks. The latest polls create a showdown of top-20 teams on Saturday (Feb. 23) when Missouri Valley Conference leader Drake University (23-2) visits Hinkle Fieldhouse as part of the sixth annual O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters event. Drake is 16th in the AP poll and 18th according to the ESPN/USA Today rankings.

Senior guard Mike Green---the reigning Horizon League Player of the Week---leads Butler in scoring (fourth in the League at 15.1 points per game), rebounding (10th at 6.3 per outing) and assists (a League-best 4.92 per game), making him one of only ten players in the country to pace his team in all three categories. He is a semifinalist for several major awards, including the Naismith Award and the John Wooden Award as the nation's top player and the Bob Cousy Award as the top collegiate point guard.

Fellow senior A.J. Graves adds 13.8 points per game and became the sixth player in school history to reach the 1,700-point mark with his 15-point performance on Saturday. Freshman forward Matt Howard averages 13.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest while leading the League in field-goal percentage (.600).

Only top-ranked University of Memphis (25-0) owns a better record than the Bulldogs, whose 53-9 mark over the last two seasons matches Butler's own standard for the best two-year run in League history. BU posted a 53-12 mark from 2001-03, capped by a berth in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in 2003. The Bulldogs returned to the Sweet 16 last spring as the climax to a League-record 29-7 campaign.

Memphis---the only undefeated team in Division I---is a unanimous No. 1 choice in both polls, followed by the University of Tennessee (23-2) and the University of North Carolina (24-2). AP voters put the University of Kansas (24-2) fourth and Duke University (22-2) fifth, while the coaches in the ESPN/USA Today canvass switched thiose two teams.

UCLA (22-3) is sixth in both polls, followed by the University of Texas (21-4), Butler, and Stanford University (21-4). Xavier University (21-4) rounds out the AP top ten, with the University of Wisconsin (21-4) tentn in the coaches' canvass.

Butler leads Wright State University (11-4 in the League) by two games in the League standings with three loop games remaining. BU hosts Wright State on Feb. 28, attempting to secure the top seed for the Horizon League Championship, which begins March 4.

NOTE: Both national polls can be found in the PDF version of this release.