Around the Country with Brian Butch
April 11, 2008 | Men's Basketball
A Consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection as a senior, Brian Butch became the eighth Badger to record over 1,000 points and 650 rebounds in a career. Over the last two months, Butch has been a road warrior, spending more time in a hotel room than the comfort of his own bed.
Let's take a look at where the Polar Bear has been recently. Since February 13, Butch has traveled over 9,630 miles! between regular season games, post-season games and all-star games.
We might as well start on Wednesday, Feb. 13th, in Bloomington, Ind., where Butch hit arguably, the biggest shot of his life. Trailing by one with time running out, Butch hit a 3-pointer against Indiana to start the run that propelled the Badgers towards their first sweep of the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. The Badgers then had three more games on the road over the following three weeks to close out the regular season, including a win at Northwestern to seal the outright Big Ten Championship on Saturday, March 8.
Now this is where the travel starts to get heavy. The following week, the team left for the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis on Thursday, Mar. 13, where they spent Friday-Sunday winning the Big Ten Tournament. After returning home late on Sunday, the Badgers only had two days at home before leaving on Tuesday, Mar. 18, for Omaha, Neb. and the opening round games of the NCAA Tournament.
The team was in Omaha until late on Saturday, Mar. 22, after a few flight delays and was home for only three days before leaving for Detroit, Mich. on Wednesday, Mar. 26. Butch and the rest of the Badgers had their season come to an end in the Sweet Sixteen, falling 73-56 to Davidson and returned home to Madison on Friday, Mar. 28.
The rest of the team was finally home for good, but Butch wasn't even close to being done.
Brian left for the NABC College All-Star Game in San Antonio on Wednesday, April 2, and spent the next three days practicing and playing with a number of other senior college basketball standouts. After a couple of intense practices Wednesday and Thursday, Butch joined 21 other seniors in the annual American vs. National All-Star Game.
'We had some great practices and we had a great time in San Antonio,' said Butch. 'We went pretty hard, which was pretty surprising since it was just an all-star game, usually all-star practices you don't do anything.'
Prior to the game, the players attended the college dunk and 3-point contest in which some of the players were participating in.
'Some of the guys from my team were competing in it, so we got to watch those guys have fun out there,' said Butch. 'I thought Patrick Ewing Jr. should have won the dunk contest with his behind the back dunk.'
Butch scored nine points and pulled down four rebounds in 21 minutes of action as his American team fell 106-100 to the National team. Duke's DeMarcus Nelson (National team) led all scorers with 21 points. Check out the full box score here .
'It's awesome to play with new guys and do something different then practicing against the same guys every day,' said Butch. 'It's nice to get away for a little bit and still be able to play basketball.'
Butch returned home Saturday in time to watch the Final Four and have a few days at home before leaving for Portsmouth, Va. on Wednesday, April 9. Butch will be playing in the 56th annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, the nation's oldest amateur basketball tournament. The tournament has been recognized by the NBA and European leagues as the premier showcase for future professional players. Click here for more info on the Portsmouth Invitational, including rosters, schedule of games and results from the tournament.
'It's a great opportunity to go play basketball and try and turn some heads,' said Butch. 'I'm hoping to impress some people, and hopefully show some scouts what I have and then try and make it to the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando a couple weeks later.'
In Wednesday's opening round game, Butch scored a team-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc but his team fell 101-88. Butch 's team will play again on Friday afternoon in the consolation bracket.
After returning home from this weekend's tournament, Butch will continue to work out with the Wisconsin staff and wait to hear if he is invited to the Orlando, Fla. pre-draft camp. The NBA Draft is set for June 26 in New York, N.Y.
