Lamont Butler has performed on Final Four stage before. He wants to get back there with a new school
Lamont Butler doesn’t want to settle for just one shining moment on a Final Four stage
Lamont Butler doesn’t want to settle for just one shining moment on a Final Four stage.
The guy who made the buzzer beater to send San Diego State to the 2023 NCAA Tournament championship game is confident he can get back there as a fifth-year senior with Kentucky.
He has his new teammates believing that as well heading into No. 3 seed Kentucky’s Midwest Region semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed Tennessee (29-7) on Friday in Indianapolis.
“I will say from day one our focus was winning a national championship,” Butler said. “The expectation here at Kentucky is to win. And we’ve got a bunch of winners here, and we want to continue that tradition.”
This Kentucky team is a little different from any other in its storied history, which is why Butler’s tournament experience with San Diego State has been so essentially.
Kentucky (24-11) didn’t return a single player who scored a point for the Wildcats last season. New coach Mark Pope essentially built a roster from scratch. Nine transfers had to get accustomed to playing together.
Butler emerged as the leader of the group. Kentucky teammate Andrew Carr referenced it before the tournament when he jokingly referred to Butler as “LaMarch.”
The Wildcats look up to him in part because they know what he’s accomplished. The 6-foot-2 guard is making his fifth straight tournament appearance. His jumper as time expired in a 2023 NCAA semifinal gave San Diego State a 72-71 victory over Florida Atlantic, sending the Aztecs into a championship game they lost to UConn.
“Most of us talk about what happened to us,” Pope said. “We talk about what happened to us. And champions, winners talk about what they made happen. It’s just the truth. It’s true.
“Lamont Butler is spending his whole lifetime talking about what he makes happen, and that’s a champion’s heart. And he doesn’t spend any time talking about what happened to him. He talks about all the stuff he makes happen. When you have a guy like that leading your crew like that, it’s pretty special.”
Pope related a story from last summer when he was on the road recruiting and the team had planned something for a player who was going through a difficult family situation: “I called in to check with that player and see how the day went, and he had scrapped all the plans because Lamont scooped him up and they spent the day together. And Lamont did that because that’s who he is. He cares.”
Butler said he knew even around that time that this Kentucky team was capable of putting together a run similar to the one his San Diego State team made two years ago - and perhaps doing even more.
“I kind of expected us to be in a good position from the summer to go win a national championship,” Butler said prior to the NCAA Tournament. “That’s on our mind. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Butler is averaging 11.1 points and 4.3 assists – career highs in both categories – despite dealing with a left shoulder injury dating to mid-January that cost him six games. He hurt it again in the Southeastern Conference Tournament and didn’t play in a quarterfinal loss to Alabama.
Butler returned for a 76-57 first-round NCAA victory over Troy and didn’t score at all, but he still contributed in so many other ways that he had a plus-minus rating of plus-22. Butler, who has been wearing a brace on the shoulder, had 14 points and five assists in an 84-75 second-round triumph over Illinois.
“He’s really a dog,” Kentucky guard Otega Oweh said. “Going out there with one arm and giving it his all. He’s playing defense, and on top of that, he’s getting us into our offense. When you have someone that’s doing that, it just trickles down. You just want to out there and fight for him, too.”
Butler had three of Kentucky’s 14 steals against Illinois. After the game, Kentucky guard Koby Brea had a simple explanation for why the Wildcats were able to force Illinois into so many turnovers.
“We have Lamont Butler as the head of defense,” Brea said. “So I feel like for any team, when you see him pick you up, it has to put something in your stomach, some nerves or something.”
Butler scares his opponents while calming his teammates. He’s providing the presence this team full of transfers needed as they try to get Kentucky back to the Final Four for the first time in a decade.
“I think everybody is hungry this year,” Butler said. “I feel like a lot of us came from smaller schools or different places and we were able to compete at one of the best schools ever. We all wanted to be remembered here.”
Butler already was going to be remembered for that shot he hit two years ago. Now he’s creating a whole new set of memories while wearing a different uniform.
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