Butler’s Ronald Nored lost his starting job this season. He’s not a good shooter and averages just 5.3 points a game. But without him, Butler probably doesn’t make two consecutive Final Fours.
The junior guard is the Bulldogs’ best perimeter defender, and on Saturday he helped hold Florida’s leading scorer — Erving Walker — to just eight points on 1-for-10 shooting.
Last year, Butler rode its defense to the national championship game — holding Syracuse, Kansas State and Michigan State to under 60 points before falling to Duke 61-59 in the title game.
Throughout this year’s NCAA tournament, Butler’s interior has been exposed at times, but Nored and the perimeter defense have consistently made things difficult for opposing guards.
In Butler’s second-round game, Darius James, Ben Finney and Kent Bazemore combined to score 20 points for Old Dominion, shooting 4-for-18 from the field.
Pittsburgh lost despite shooting 56.5 percent, but starting guards Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs were held to a combined 19 points — nearly 10 below their season average.
Wisconsin star guard Jordan Taylor was able to score a game-high 22 points in the Sweet 16 matchup, but he shot 6-for-19 (31.6 percent) in order to do so.
Nored’s stat line will never jump out, but his play on defense is one of the reasons Butler is the first team from a non-BCS conference to make back-to-back Final Fours since UNLV in 1990-91.
