Butler's Rotnei Clark is a baller. In the video you can hear him saying he will not come out of the game. While he lays on the court, in a lot of pain, and with some numbness to his extremities, his only concern is playing. Marc Few tried real hard to recruit this guy and this is one reason why.
He was injured in the first half of their game against Dayton this weekend as he attempted a lay-up. He was fouled by Dayton's Matt Derenbecker, who was charged with a flagrant 1 foul. The injury occurred when he collided into the basket support head first. He had to be taken from the game on a stretcher.
Many were anxiously waiting this game, as it appears to be one of the biggest hurdles left on Gonzaga's schedule. Clark was Butler's leading scorer who averages a team-high 16.2 points per game. The loss of Clark will be a huge blow to their chances of upsetting the Zags. He was Butler's leading three point sniper hitting .444% and he had bombed in 59 threes this season. It would have been exciting watching Pangos go head to head with Clark.
Fortunately for Rotnei, MRI tests showed no spinal cord injury's, but he does have a severe neck sprain that will take some time to heal before he can resume contact.
This means the #8 ranked Zags will have to play #13 ranked Butler, on the road on Saturday without their star guard.
We wish him a speedy recovery.
3 comments:
Win or lose, I like to see a competitive game. Clark is quite a player he will be missed. More to the point, I will miss watching him go against the Zags.
Butler is still a quality team. Their defense is much improved over their early season efforts. Can't help but admire a team that can do a 180 after having trouble early in the season.
Well, I'm still hoping for a good matchup.
I'm glad Rotnie is doing well. His injury could have been so much worse. It would have been great to play Butler with him in the line-up. It would have given us another opportunity to defend a strong, high scoring guard to asses our improvement.
However, Butler shouldn't be overlooked without him in the line-up. They are a scrappy, defense minded hard playing for the full 40 minute game team.
In regards to Butler, losing to us won't hurt them. But if Clarke plays and gets hurt again, losing to conference opponents will hurt more. I would like to see them win the A10 conference.
Wishing Rotnie a healthy recovery.
Butler is still very capable of winning this game. They knocked off previously undefeated and #1 ranked Indiana. They are on an 11 game winning streak as well.
Brad Stevens is an excellent coach and he will have them ready at home. The loss of Rotnei may inspire them as they will be playing for him.
The thing is,if we win we beat them without Rotnei. If we lose...we lost to them without Rotnei. Not the best scenario.
But enough of Butler....We've got a game with Portland on the road tommorrow. Certainly they will be giving us everything they have and the place will be packed.
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