Chaz Clark isn’t afraid to say it — he got schooled.
That’s how he describes what happened when his Butler Bulldogs met up with No. 1 Westside for the fourth time this season in Thursday’s Region 4-AA Tournament semifinal game.
Despite going 2-1 against the two-time defending Class AA state champions during the regular season, Westside avenged the losses when it mattered most, knocking off Butler 50-37 en route to another Region 4-AA championship.
After that game, the first-year Butler head coach gave a refreshingly candid explanation for what went wrong.
“To be honest with you, the two-time state champ came out,” Clark said. “Veteran, legendary coach Jerry Hunter came out. I’m not ashamed to say that there were some points, especially early in the game, where coach Hunter threw some stuff at me, and it took me until halftime — and really, my coaching staff helped — to make the adjustments.”
Clark said Hunter showed a zone defense that he hadn’t seen before.
“It was a zone with a triangle at the top, and he put two guys at the bottom,” Clark said. “It really stalled my guys out, and it helped his guys out. My coaching staff helped us get them out of it coming out for the third quarter, and we made them go man. But if we would’ve found the answer to the zone earlier, I think it could’ve kept our guys in rhythm.
“But honestly, it was a young team and young coach taking a hard less from a veteran and legendary coach with talented ball players who are kind of young too, but they’ve been in the mix with that program in those championship seasons.”
But one thing about Clark and his Butler squad — he knew that they wouldn’t allow themselves to sulk over the loss for too long. “Respond” is the word Clark likes to use when describing his team’s resilience. It’s the chief characteristic behind what he calls a “surprising” first season.
“I can say, my boys outperformed my earlier expectations,” Clark said. “I didn’t think we’d end up getting as good as we did as quickly as we did. And that 11-game win streak, I definitely didn’t see that coming.”
Especially when it came. Butler began the season 1-2 with a five-point loss to Jones County, a six-point win against Evans in a neutral court showcase and an eight-point setback to Class AAA powerhouse Cross Creek.
The streak started on Dec. 2 when Butler up-ended Grovetown 52-44. Perhaps the most impressive part of that stretch was a three-game stint that featured a 56-49 win against Westside sandwiched between blowout victories against state tournament teams Richmond Academy and Burke County.
And it wasn’t just the final scores that impressed Clark. It was the way his team played against high-level competition.
“You know, we beat Westside the first time, and it wasn’t necessarily winning that impressed me, but playing in that environment at Paine College,” he said. “They really surprised me how they executed. We’ve dealt with some highs and lows this season, but they just keep surprising me with the way they respond.”
Even in Butler’s six losses, the only time the Bulldogs lost back-to-back games this season was when it played at Thomson and at Westside within a four-day period. And to be fair, most teams would lose back-to-back games against that level of opposition.
It’s all about the response.
“After that 1-2 start, we win 11 straight,” he said. “We dropped Thomson and Westside, but then we responded again later in the season with another win streak. We dropped one to Laney that we didn’t expect to lose. But the story of this team is their ability to respond, and I’m looking for them to respond again the rest of the season.”
On cue, Butler did just that by knocking off Laney in convincing fashion, 67-42, the day after the region tournament loss to Westside. It raised Butler’s record to 21-6 and placed them as one of the best No. 3 seed teams in the Class AA state tournament.
The Bulldogs get a tough draw having to travel to Eastman to take on a solid Dodge County (21-4) team that finished tops in the Region 1-AA regular season standings before getting upset in its region tournament championship game in a 50-48 setback to Sumter County.
Consider that game to be a likely aberration, though as the Indians boast two dynamic seniors in 6-foot point guard Jaedon McClendon and 6-foot-2 swing player Will Jordan. Both are seniors. Both put in about 15 points per game and have proven tough to stop.
But youth and inexperience aside, Clark, nor his team realize they have no reason to be intimidated by the challenge as they, themselves have proven to be a force to be reckoned with.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned through this first season is if you’re going to do this professionally, you’ve gotta learn to love it all,” Clark said. “You can’t just love the highs. You’ve gotta love the lows. And so far, I can honestly say I love every part of it. I can smile after a win and I can smile after a loss. I want my team to be able to do that as well.
“At the end of the day, we’re still building, we’re still chasing. We still have the state tournament ahead. We’re still one of the top teams in the state, and we’re really excited about that.”
