The Butler Bulldogs are, amazingly enough, in the final game of the college basketball season when they tip-off against the Duke Blue Devils, and while they are known as a defensive squad — very much so, in fact — in order to beat the Blue Devils, Butler will have to excel on the offensive end. Unfortunately, being a high-scoring team is not their calling card, seeing how the most points they’ve posted since February 6th is 77 points.

It will take at least that many if Butler stands a chance at beating Duke.

While it’s true Butler will try to slow the game down and force the Blue Devils to execute in their half-court offense, and they may very well succeed in doing so. However, if they have another 10-plus minute scoring drought in the second half like they did against Michigan State (game minutes, no less), the Bulldogs will get blown out of the gym, defense be damned.

Here’s a nice little graph of Butler’s offensive output against the Spartans. It isn’t pretty:

NCAA Basketball

Notice how their line doesn’t extend upwards during the second half portion of said graph? If anything like that remotely happens against Duke, Mike Krzyzewski will celebrating his fourth championship ring.

Perhaps the news about Matt Howard’s availability will improve Butler’s outlook, but then again, if Shelvin Mack has to deal with dehydration and cramps again, it won’t matter if Howard is healthy or not. Simply put, in order for Butler to win, they’ll need big games from Mack, Howard and Gordon Hayward, plus, they’ll need to shut Duke down when they are on offense.

That doesn’t sound like a tall order at all. The question going forward is, can Butler score enough to keep pace with the Blue Devils, because I just don’t see their defense giving a healthy Duke team the same problems it gave Syracuse and Michigan State.