College notebook: Latrobe grad Butler set for 3x3 Nations League Americas tournament

Bryce Butler has shown over the years that he is made for big moments on the basketball court. Whether he’s finding ways to score, creating offense off the ball or setting up teammates, the Latrobe product is an all-around talent.

Which makes the college graduate an ideal pick for the 2024 FIBA 3-on-3 Nations League Americas set for July 22-28 in Mexico City.

He will play for the U23 team.

Butler, a former West Liberty standout who played a year at the College of Charleston, is not new to 3x3 basketball. He played in the ‘22 FIBA games.

The Coastal Athletic Association Sixth Man of the Year last season — in his fifth college season as a grad student — Butler will be joined in Mexico City by Finley Bizjack (Butler University), Dalen Davis (Princeton), Jacob Harvey (Trinity University), Boden Kapke (Butler University) and Caden Pierce (Princeton).

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to represent my country while playing the sport I love,” Butler said in a news release. “Thank you to USA Basketball for giving me the chance to compete at a high level.”

Butler averaged 8.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 20.6 minutes off the bench for Charleston.

The Nations League, now in its seventh year, features 13 conferences with teams from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The league for the first time will serve as a qualifier for the FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup Sept. 11-15 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

‘Flexing’ Griffins

Seton Hill football, moreover sixth-year defensive coordinator Kevin May and his system, was featured by ESPN.com.

An article penned by staff writer David Hale breaks down the “Flex” defense used by the Griffins, referring to the scheme as perhaps “the most dynamic, aggressive and confounding scheme run by any team in the country.”

May said he learned the defensive alignment at Wyoming from longtime coach David Brown in the early 2010s. As the story says, “It’s complex, it’s confusing for offenses, and, as Brown and other originators of the system often scolded, it’s not to be changed.”

“I was always told,” May said in the write-up, “never to mess with grandma’s recipe.”

The Flex, fundamentally, is meant to disguise the defensive front with one, or no, down linemen. The box is always flooded with defenders.

It focuses on man coverage.

May added to the base look, studying the strategy extensively and giving it a nontraditional look, as the piece drives home.

Griffins coach Dan Day said in the article: “The smartest guys we have in the room go against this for four years … and they still say, ‘I don’t know what they’re doing.’ ”

Day added: “It blows my mind that people don’t want to run this. If you ran this at Alabama, with the best of the best, I don’t know how you’d stop it.”

Hale called the Flex used by Seton Hill “like the triple option, but for defense: a plug-and-play scheme that virtually anyone could run with success, but yet still so outside the norm that other teams struggle to prepare for it.”

Last season, Seton Hill was fifth in NCAA Division II in sacks and tackles for loss.

The Griffins have produced the last two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division Defensive Players of the Year: Dioh Desuah and Jaylen McDuffie.

Redshirt junior Quinton Posey also is quoted in the in-depth story.

Did you know?

Longtime Saint Vincent women’s volleyball coach Sue Hozak is among the top coaches in the nation in Division III.

According to D3 Data, Hozak ranks sixth among active coaches nationally in wins with 678.

Hozak, who has been with the Bearcats since the women’s program began in 1985, played in three PIAA championship teams at Norwin and also was a standout at Waynesburg.

On her watch, Saint Vincent won two ECAC Division II championships in a row (2006, ‘07), and reached the ECAC Division III semifinals in 2009 and the finals in ‘10.