Miami blasts No. 16 Utah in Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rico Tipoff tournament win will be great for the Hurricanes confidence going forwards.

However, if there is one thing Bulldog fans have learned throughout the years, it’s that Butler always shows up to big games ready for a fight.

Tubby Smith and the Red Raider basketball team edged out Minnesota 81-68, to finish in fifth place at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

While Butler hasn’t brought home any hardware from their previous few preseason tournaments, they’ve used them as a platform to get experience playing against quality teams. “We competed hard. I mean, last night we were just outmatched”.

Let me start off with a Captain Obvious moment.

That’s exactly what Butler did.

The succeeding two seasons have to have left some Miami fans wondering if the fairy tale season actually happened or if it was just a coping mechanism to deal with the fact that the ‘Canes have still never played in a regional final. I’m going to go out on a limb here by saying that the Hurricanes will go undefeated throughout non-conference play. Luckily for the Hurricanes, Rodriguez took charge and they maintained their lead into victory. “We had good looks at the basket, maybe better shots than what we had been making in our first couple of games”.

After a 5-0 start which included wins over No. 16 Utah and No. 22 Butler, Coach Jim Larranaga finds his squad ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25 and No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. CBS Sports ranked them No. 9, up from No. 21.

In addition to McClellan, the Hurricanes have another senior on the perimeter in Angel Rodriguez who also is an National Basketball Association caliber guard. Forward Joey King and guard Carlos Morris led the Gophers (3-2) with 15 points apiece, with Morris adding five rebounds and four assists.

In the end, Butler will likely use this game as a learning experience. We were up big, and then you’re down.

Grant Benzinger, the son of former major leaguer Todd Benzinger, had 19 points for Wright State.

Allen, who averaged 27 points in the Blue Devils’ first two games of the season, was held to six points on 2-for-11 shooting by No. 2 Kentucky on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic.

Butler finished with a 47-41 rebounding advantage and scored 22 second-chance points.

What was the problem for Butler? Ross tallied five points and two rebounds whereas Jackson, Manderson and Thomas chipped in four points each.

It’s not easy to win when two players have that much of a burden on their shoulders. DeCosey also had 10 rebounds for his second career double-double…. “Anytime we got close they seemed to make a big play”.

Up till Sunday, Butler’s scoring this season had been pretty evenly distributed, so it’s possible this was just an anomaly.

Texas Tech hosts Hawaii on Saturday. The Owls leave the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament 1-2, although their record easily could have been the other way around.

SIU-E is now 275th in the nation in Points Per Game at just 68.7. It was 61-58 before the Broncos’ Kahlil Thomas misfired of a 1-and-1.