Twenty years ago, a young Gene Keady assistant was making a two-hour round-trip commute between Mackey Arena and his home in Indianapolis.
On Tuesday night, having long since moved away from the Circle City, that young assistant was back in Indianapolis. But this time, he was a head coach and no longer so young.
On the opening night of the college basketball season, former Purdue Boilermaker Cuonzo Martin lead his Missouri State Bears into Hinkle Fieldhouse to square off against the Butler Bulldogs.
Although this was a game that pitted the Big East vs the Missouri Valley Conference, it had a lot of Big Ten flavor.
The Butler coaching staff consisted of former Michigan State guard Maurice Joseph, Ohio State alumn Jon Diebler and 2023 Iowa graduate Connor McCaffery, while Missouri State countered with a trio of former Purdue guards Martin, Carson Cunningham and Tarrance Crump.
Missouri State also featured Purdue transfer Chase Martin and freshman guard Iago Stanback. The Bulldogs roster included two Big Ten transfers: Patrick McCaffery (Iowa) and Pierre Brooks (Michigan State).
A crowd of 7,887 watched an undersized Missouri State team get off to a quick 5-0 start.
Butler would go on a 9-0 run of its own, highlighted by back-to-back threes by fifth-year senior Jahmyl Telfort. Telfort’s early success would be indicative of the kind of night he was to have.
After allowing the Bears to get out to a quick lead in the first two minutes, the Bulldogs settled in on the defensive end. A three-pointer by Missouri State guard Wesley Oba at the 4:40 mark of the first half cut Butler’s lead to 32-23.
Related: Butler versus East Tennessee State
Intermission didn’t have much effect on the momentum, which had shifted to Missouri State late in the first half.
A Mozae Downing-Rivers three-pointer with 15:20 remaining in the game put the visitors up 45-42. You could see the confidence grow on the Missouri State bench after each Bear bucket. Cuonzo Martin made multiple trips from the scorer’s table back to his bench pumping his fist, urging his team on.
Over the next 12 minutes, it was back and forth with no team leading by more than five points. At the 2:56 mark, Telfort buried a triple to put the Bulldogs up six. Dez White would counter with his own make from deep less than a minute later to cut the lead to three points. But that would be the last points of the game from Missouri State. Butler’s defense locked in for the last two minutes of the ball game to secure a 72-65 victory in their season opener.
Telfort poured in 29 points on an efficient 7-12 from the field. Pierre Brooks contributed 13 points and the Iowa transfer Patrick McCaffery, in his Butler debut, contributed 11 points.
Despite the victory, the story of the game for Butler was turnovers. After averaging 10.9 turnovers a game last year, the Bulldogs committed 19 turnovers in the opener.
Butler Head Coach Thad Matta had some thoughts on the turnover problem in his postgame presser.
“I’ve never seen us turn the ball over like that,” Matta said. “Our decision making was horrendous tonight. We weren’t thinking. That’s got to get corrected.”
Butler is back in action on Friday at Hinkle Fieldhouse against Austin Peay.
Austin Taylor is the Executive Director of The City League. For more news from the Indianapolis Recorder, click here.
