OK, I'm breaking from my "pessimist" mold...I like this match-up for our Lady Rockets. If they play like they can & stay focused, they can beat the Bulldogs. And here's where that starts to pay off...Butler is in the A10, one of the few true "darling" conferences of mid-major basketball (men's & women's). We've already beaten 2 from the A10, this season (Charlotte & St. Bonaventure), and lost a close one at Dayton. Beating another A10 school will help UT's stature, even just a little bit.

Keys to a good WNIT tournament run, IMO:

* Defending the "3"--the 2 games we lost to CMU were lost, in large part, to the Chips making a good number of 3s. Scouting report on Butler (and hopefully some more games after that) needs to identify the shooters, plays they run to get them open, and ways to make sure the Lady Rockets get out there to limit the good looks.

* Making 3s--hasn't been UT's strong point this season. During the WNIT championship run, Jessica Williams made some key 3s. Last year, it was Courtney Ingersoll. May not be one player for UT this time around, but somehow we gotta make some more 3s.

* Free throw shooting--I know, our "poor" (65%) FT shooting hasn't "cost" us a game yet, but the WNIT games should arguably be closer games, and we may need every 3 or 4 points we can get. Just raising the team average to 75% for the tournament would do wonders.

* Bench play--especially the longer the tournament goes on at this point in the season. Good things for Toledo is that we don't really depend on just one player to contribute; in fact, often times, one player comes up big off the bench one game, and then the next game it's somebody else. Not sure that many other teams in the WNIT will have that luxery.

Go Lady Rockets!

Looks like Butler has gone 8-deep most of the season, with a 9th player getting minutes in the last month or so...only 1 Senior & 2 Juniors...key player is 6'0" Junior, McClung--forward who is leading scorer (16/game) and rebounder (9/game, including 3 offensive rebounds a game). As a team, Butler does get outrebounded by 5 a game...but they shoot 70% from the FT line.

Here's a late season scouting report on Butler:

Scouting the Opponent: Butler

Butler's top three players are all transfers from BCS schools.

Daress McClung, a transfer from Cincy, is the leader of the team. The 6-0 forward is an absolute terror on both ends of the floor. McClung averages 17 ppg, 9 rpg, 2.3 spg, and 2.4 bpg as a statsheet stuffer. The key with Daress is that she's not only a banger inside, but can also step out and make jumpers and threes. She also has a nasty dribble-drive that she can dish or score from.

Taylor Schippers, 5'8" (Ok. State transfer) is Butler's PG and shooting specialist who has been in a major slump lasting the majority of the season. She can go off in bunches.

Liz Stratman, 6'2" (Xavier transfer) missed the first half the year after being forced to sit out half the year due to transfer rules. She plays at center and dominates the paint on D with McClung. A very good inside defender, the weak spot appeared to be that she went for blocks too often on D rather than putting herself in better rebounding position when it appeared obvious she wasn't going to get the block. It still will be tough for DU to get points in the paint against McClung and Stratman.

Hannah Douglas, Mandy McDivitt, and Amanda Raker round out the starting rotation, with Stratman often not starting. The trio of Douglas, McDivitt, and Raker all are typically role players.

My addition:
McClung, Stratman and Schippers combine for 40 of the Bulldogs 59 points per game. McClung and Stratman combine for 15 rebounds and 5 blocks per game. This trio also turns the ball over nearly 10 times per game.