INDIANAPOLIS – When this college basketball season began, the Butler Bulldogs could not have expected to fight for a top-10 ranking and No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Now, after raising expectations that high with a surprising start to Big East play, they could not have expected to fight to avoid a No. 7 or 8 seed in the Big East tournament and thus a play-in game.
Yet that is how volatile this sport and this conference have become. No. 21 Butler (18-5, 7-4 Big East) will try to avoid its first three-game losing streak in three seasons under coach Chris Holtmann in Tuesday’s game at Marquette (15-8, 6-5).