Big crowd expected for Butler at Beeghly

The Penguins are 1-16 all-time against ranked opponents at Beeghly.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Tonight at Beeghly Center, the Youngstown State men's basketball team will play host to the No. 13 ranked team in the country.
The Penguins (9-13, 4-6) will play host to Horizon League leaders Butler (20-2, 8-1) in a 7 p.m. tip-off.
The Bulldogs, who have already posted a 67-39 victory over the Penguins earlier this month, are ranked No. 13 by the Associated Press this week. The Bulldogs also are ranked No. 11 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
Youngstown State is coming off an 80-68 loss at Loyola on Monday night. The Penguins have dropped two straight and three of their last four games.
"A couple of hours preparation time for a Top 10 team is not what you really want but it's all that we have," YSU head coach Jerry Slocum said Tuesday.
Tough game
In the first meeting with the Bulldogs, the Penguins got off to a very slow start and shot the ball poorly while Butler took full advantage and shot above 60 percent in the first half.
"We have to shoot the ball much better," Slocum said. "When we shoot in the 43-to-45 percent range, we have a better chance at winning.
"Butler is as good a defensive team as there is in this league," he said. "They are tough to defense against and yet they defend you very well."
Still, Slocum and the Penguins are excited about tonight's matchup.
"This will probably be the largest crowd to see a game at Beeghly this year," Slocum said.
Slocum said that other than the two top teams [Butler and Wright State], the other seven teams have all had their peaks and valleys this year.
"There is still a lot of basketball to be played and this game is not going to make or break our season one way or the other," Slocum said. "We have seven games remaining, five at home and two away, and most of them are against teams tied or right ahead of us."
Consistent team
The Bulldogs have been a consistent team all season, including their starting lineup which has been the same in 20 of the 22 games they've played.
The only reason it wasn't the same in the other two was that top scorer A.J. Graves, missed one game entirely after oral surgery and didn't start in the first meeting against YSU because of that surgery.
Graves is averaging 18.2 points per game and shoots almost 40 percent from both the field and the 3-point range. He has also made 98 of 101 free throws.
With the Penguins' loss to Loyola, they dropped into a tie for seventh place in the conference standings. But the conference is so tight that had they won they would have moved into third place.
Butler will be the third ranked opponent the Penguins have faced this season -- Michigan State and Ohio State are the other two.
The Bulldogs are one of the few ranked opponents ever to play at Beeghly Center. Butler was ranked 24th in the country in 2002 when it came to Beeghly.
Before that, you would have to go back to the late 1970s when a Pittsburgh team ranked in the Top 10 came to town.
Overall, YSU has played against 17 ranked opponents and is 1-16 in those games.
The victory came in 1952 at home against LaSalle 68-57, long before Beeghly Center was built.
mollica@vindy.com