Introduction to MISE EN PLACE
You have undoubtedly been a part of preparing a meal, either for yourself or for someone else. You set out and prep the ingredients, get the silverware ready, all that good stuff that precedes the meal itself but are all necessary towards completing the meal. This process is known as “MISE EN PLACE,” French for “set up” or “put into place.”
College basketball’s preseason is lengthy and takes times to digest. Recently, this digestion time has taken longer because of the new transfer rules and general player retention going down en masse. The shuffle due to NIL money, playing time and coaching changes has caused a lot of players to leave their original programs in hope of that greener grass at a different school. There are significantly more moving parts in the offseason than before and the movement can create confusion as to roster composition if not just for one’s own team but also conference opponents.
I want to supply the casual fan with their preseason reading in time for the regular season’s start. We’ve spoken a lot about Creighton, but what about the rest of the Big East? How has UConn reloaded after a year in the National Championship Game, or how did Georgetown address going 6-14 in conference last season? I want to put the Big East into place, set up the conference for you all, or provide the MISE EN PLACE, if you will.
From now until Villanova’s first game in Rome on November 1 against Notre Dame, I wanted to run down the 10 other Big East programs as a MISE EN PLACE series. We will begin with the Butler University Bulldogs, out of Indianapolis.
General Information
- Head Coach: Ronald Nored (First season with Butler, formerly an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks)
- 2025-26 Record: 16-16 (7-13 Big East)
- 2025-26 Postseason: Loss to Providence in First Round of Big East Tournament; no other postseason appearance
- Coaches’ Poll Placement: 11th (13 points)
- Media Day All-Big East Members: None
- 2026-27 Scoring Retention: ~10.3 percent of scoring across three players
Key Returners
This graph shows the scoring distribution of Butler’s players last season, sorted in descending order by points scored. Note that players who are not returning have white columns while the three returning players have blue columns. Also note that, due to size, some column colors may be difficult to see.
Butler has two players returning from Thad Matta’s final season who are strong candidates for playing time this season. Graduate guard Jalen Jackson played and started just six games last season before ankle surgery ended his season. That hit to Butler’s backcourt limited their outlook; Jackson helped lead the Bulldogs to a 5-1 start where they were outscoring opponents by nearly 17.5 points per game. These opponents included SMU, their sole loss, and neutral site victories over South Carolina and Virginia.
When Jackson went down, Butler lost a player who had averaged 9.5 points and 3.8 assists per game. Despite standing at just 6-foot-2, Jackson was efficient inside the paint, shooting 52.6 percent from two on 38 shot attempts over his six games. He had led the Horizon League in scoring just the year prior, averaging 19.2 points per game at Fort Wayne with a healthy diet of two pointers. He’s always been a strong guard capable of getting to the rim and forcing contact, something Coach Nored will want to utilize this coming season.
Also returning to the Bulldogs is senior center Drayton Jones. A full-season starter for Butler, Jones was your stereotypical big man: not a ton of minutes played, good rebounding numbers, strong shooting inside, 0-of-1 from three, et cetera. He tied former Bulldog Michael Ajayi in blocks, but Butler’s rim protection was lacking last season as a whole with just 29 blocks from both Ajayi and Jones. Ajayi, being the All-Big East caliber player he was, also made Jones’ rebounding numbers look lackluster across the conference’s elite; Ajayi led the Big East in defense rebounds, total rebounds and total rebounds per game.
Even still, Jones provides continuity that Butler will look to lean on. He split minutes pretty evenly with backup Yohan Traore across the season, so there is a chance that Jones might not see as much playing time as someone like Jackson, but Jones’ presence down low as Butler’s biggest interior player makes him indispensable as a traditional center.
Key Transfers
This graph shows the total points of the five total transfers Butler brought in this offseason, ordered again by total points scored. Note that the colors of the columns represent the school where that specific player came from.
Butler’s roster is sprinkled with many transfers, as is the case with many schools employing a new head coach. The Bulldogs recruited five Division One transfers into Indianapolis, four of whom have played significant minutes in their collegiate careers to this point.
Let’s start with the guards. Junior guard Eduardo Klafke comes to Butler after two years establishing himself as one of the best three point shooters in the SEC with the Ole Miss Rebels. Klafke’s career 44.6 percent shooting from range ranked fourth in the SEC over the past two years among players with at least 50 attempts. Shooting so well in this league is impressive, but what holds Klafke’s preseason hype back is his low overall usage rate of just 11.5 percent over 867 minutes played for his career. He wasn’t one of Ole Miss’ top offensive options at any one time.
Not to say he hasn’t been successful in his role. He’s played 70 games in just two seasons, started 12 of those games, scored in double figures five times in his sophomore season and really boosted his rebounding numbers in his second year as well. Klafke’s been successful in his smaller role for the Rebels but his workload will increase a ton while in Indianapolis. Both his individual numbers and Butler’s team success will hinge in part on Klafke making a pretty large jump in increased minutes.
Klafke is joined in the backcourt by Florida Gulf Coast transfer Jordan Ellerbee, who spent just one season with the Eagles before transferring to Butler. Ellerbee, a sophomore this season, was the Eagles’ second leading scorer last season with 13.1 points per game over 34 games and 24 starts. His scoring highs are incredible, including a 42-point performance off the bench against Kennesaw State in OT and 23 points in a start against Central Florida, one of just two power conference opponents Ellerbee played last season.
Ellerbee’s main criticism is that he was a high-usage guard for the Eagles that needed to score to impact FGCU’s winning chances. Ellerbee scored 15.6 points per game in the Eagles’ 18 wins shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 42.6 percent from three, but scored just 12.1 points per game in losses that also saw him shoot 44.6 percent from the field and 29.6 from three. Butler might not need Ellerbee to be on fire to win games, but it will hurt Butler if Ellerbee’s shooting split from range is closer to 30 percent than 40 percent.
Of Butler’s incoming transfers, junior forward Treyson Anderson is the only player with NCAA Tournament experience last season. Anderson’s North Dakota State Bison lost to Michigan State in the Round of 64, but Anderson had double figures against the big frontline Tom Izzo uses in East Lansing. It was Anderson’s 19th game with double digits over the course of the season, an improvement from just one in his freshman season, and he did this while shooting 50.0 percent from the field and 35.8 percent from three.
Anderson won the starting job after 15 games, but despite starting for 19 of the final 20 games, he only had one game with 30+ minutes played. Over his final 10 games, which included nine starts, Anderson only had an average of 16.6 minutes played per game. He was stellar in those games, shooting the basketball extremely well, but he’ll need to show he can play in longer spurts to be an impact in the Big East.
The final transfer with major experience is the 6-foot-6 graduate from The Citadel Christian Moore. Moore played 31 games and started 23 for The Citadel last season, showing that he was a capable stretch forward after shooting 38.7 percent from three on over five attempts per game. He operated a lot as a pure shooter with low rebounding numbers but strong scoring capabilities as The Citadel’s second leading scorer last season.
Moore likely won’t be Butler’s primary guy, which will both help and hurt him. On one hand, having Moore as strictly a spot up shooter will hurt his scoring, but on the other, limiting his usage will also likely keep his percentages close to where they were for The Citadel last season, despite increased conference strength.
Key College Newcomers
Coach Nored is banking primarily on international talent to fill out the remaining holes in his roster. Freshman guard Samu Adler, freshman forward Asim Djulovic and freshman forward Marko Maric all herald from Europe in various capacities. Adler was in the Finnish Korisliiga—the top league in Finland—where he won their Player of the Year and Finals MVP awards last season averaging 16.3 points per game over the regular season and playoffs. Djulovic averaged 12.7 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game as a member of Mega Superbet in Serbia. Maric averaged 9.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for Novi Zagreb in Croatia. It’s very rare that European prospects are a one-for-one translation in skillset to the NCAA, and time will tell if they are able to acclimate well in the college game.
Butler also received a commitment from four-star high schooler Herly Brutus. Brutus was a top-150 player in 247Sports’ rankings last season, also rated as the 22nd recruit in the Class of 2026 from Florida and a top-50 small forward nationally. He’ll have to squeeze into the rotation with players like Moore, Anderson, Djulovic and Klafke also competing for time at his position.
Others
Butler had three other returnees not listed above: Ethan McComb had two points last season, while Bryson Cardinal and Kevin Ndzie both received redshirts last season. Kansas transfer Samis Calderon, a sophomore, comes to Butler after just one year in Lawrence where he played in 16 games over 66 minutes ands scored just six points. Baron Walker was Butler’s only other high school commitment, but was unranked in the Class of 2026.
Outlook
Viewed as a team below the Big East’s NCAA Tournament hopefuls, Butler comes into the 2026-27 season with something to prove. Nored wants to show that his alma mater can get back to the level it was under coaches like Brad Stevens and familiar-face-turned-rival Chris Holtmann, but this year might be a building year for Nored’s foundation. Building a program back after eight years out of the tournament will take time, and while I think the foundation is being set, the foundation needs to develop for a little longer.
Credits
Player information (including stats while at Butler, class standing, height and weight, international stats, et cetera) found on Butler’s Athletic webpage. Other player stats found on Sports-Reference. Lists made with Stathead. High school information found on 247Sports. Charts made on Microsoft Excel.