Junior Joey Butz displays dynamic scoring ability

By Reagan Hoverman

River Falls head coach Zac Campbell’s teams have always been known for having stout defenses. During the 2022 Stillwater Summer League playous, his Wild – cats roster showed flashes of ouensive brilliance against Mahtomedi and Stillwater on Tuesday, July 26.

In the final week of the regular season for the Still- water Summer League, Riv er Falls defeated a one-loss Mounds View team to secure the fourth and final playou spot in the ten-team league. That following week in the playous, Joey Butz, who goes into his junior year with the Wildcats, showed that he has developed into a dynam- ic playmaking scorer this ou season.

In that opening playou game against the undefeated (10-0) Mahtomedi Zephyrs, River Falls and Butz had the ouense clicking early. On the first Wildcats possession, Butz spotted up and knocked down an open three-pointer.

On the ensuing posses – sion, he penetrated the lane and kicked the ball out to an open teammate for another River Falls three-pointer. Although no ovcial stats are kept for the summer league games – except overall team score and wins and losses – Butz unovcially scored 26 points in the debut playou game against the Zephyrs.

His ability to hit spot-up threes, slash into the lane, distribute to teammates and hit turnaround jumpers made him the focal point of the River Falls ouense. At half time of that game against Mahtomedi, River Falls trailed by one point.

However, that one-point deficit easily could have been a dozen-point lead for the Wildcats. In that opening half, River Falls turned the ball over regularly – far more often than Mahtomedi – and it led to easy transition buckets for the Zephyrs.

"We struggled with turn – overs in that game, but we’ve struggled with that all summer, it's not something new," River Falls head coach Zac Campbell said after the game. "Other than that, we outplayed (Mahtomedi) in every aspect of the game."

Despite the turnovers, River Falls continued to battle throughout the second half in large part because of Butz's ouensive excellence. He continued the scoring, but he also facilitated for teammates and created open looks. However, with five seconds left trailing by one, Mahtomedi hit a mid-range jumper to take a one-point lead.

River Falls got the ball back with two seconds left and couldn’t get a quality shot ou. Mahtomedi defeat –

ed the Wildcats 51-50 to ad vance to the championship game. River Falls lost to Stillwater 65-43 in the con solation game. Coach Campbell spoke about the Mahtomedi loss.

“That’s one of the best games we’ve played all summer long in terms of our identity in the half court, transition and defensively," Campbell said. “It was those live-ball turnovers (that hurt us). If we could have set out defense it would have been better, but instead, they got layups." Butz was again the stand out player on the River Falls summer league basketball team. Coach Campbell stat- ed that Butz has committed himself to the gym this summer and has spent the entire ouseason honing his craft to become a better player.

Last year Butz was pri marily a perimeter player that didn’t do much slashing. This year he has transformed himself into a completely diuerent player that is ca pable of attacking the rim. Campbell spoke about his development.

"Over the past two or three weeks (Butz) has real – ly taken ou," Campbell said. "What you saw in that first game was one of his best, but I would also say that’s what we’ve seen from him this summer and that’s a byprod- uct of Joey's hard work. He doesn't take shortcuts." One of Butz's new scor ing moves is a mid-range turnaround jump shot that he used regularly throughout the summer league. Campbell said that his turnaround jumper has been a work in progress for a couple of years and it’s starting to pay dividends.

“He worked on that last season but it wasn’t game- ready yet," Campbell said. “He just kept repping it and it has worked well for him. He's too small to finish in the paint, so he has to find a way to get his body ou of defend ers and that move is what he's most comfortable with." Campbell stated that River Falls will have a new identity this year. Last year the Wildcats were a long, phys ical team that excelled in the paint and rebounded and defended well. This year, the team isn’t as long with players like Ethan Campbell and Kaden Rowekamp graduating.

The 2022-23 iteration of the Wildcats will fea ture much more three-point shooting and less dominance on the glass. As a whole, Zac Campbell considered the summer league a success, as a group of his young players battled their way into the playous and took an unde feated team in Mahtomedi down to the wire.

Players will step away to either play a fall sport or con- tinue ouseason training until basketball season is slated to ovcially begin. The WIAA has set the first ovcial day for practice as Tuesday, Nov. 15.

River Falls junior Joey Butz brings the ball up the floor during the Stillwater Summer League game against the undefeated Mahtomedi Zephyrs. Butz finished the game with more than 26 points and put his dynamic scoring ability on full display. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

River Falls sophomore Preston Johnson backs down a Mahtomedi defender while he looks for an open teammate to pass the ball to. Johnson will serve as one of the Wildcats’ primary ball handlers this year. Photo by Reagan Hoverman