December 4, 2025 • 8 mins
Butler basketball head coach Thad Matta joins us and discusses the Bulldogs hot start, Finley Bizjack, Red Panda, more notes on the team & more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
If you were listening to a fan morning show on
sports Radio ninety three five and one oh seven five fan,
good morning, it can only mean one thing as we
get ready to talk to basketball. It's getting in the
middle of December here, getting some games under our belt,
and things are going well over at Hinklefield House. For
our next guest, Dad Model, the head basketball coach for
(00:33):
the Butler Bulldogs, who joined us on the Paidlesslikers Hotline
this morning, Coach, I would think, so far, so good.
You're pretty pleased with the development of this team. Good morning,
And and are how are things going over there for you?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're uh, you know, like you said, I'm pleased with
the building that we're making. I still think we've got
a long long way to go, and but I think
every team's like that, every coach is like that. And
you know, we've got to act the stretch coming up
here starting Saturday. The boys, he stayed, a really really
good team. And our thing is is we tell our guys,
(01:09):
we just want to be better today than we were yesterday.
And you know, so far of this group is a
tremendous work ethic, and you know, we had a little
bit of a quick prep for Saturday's game. They haven't
played for probably a week and a half since Maui,
And you know, we just got to keep keep uh coaching, teaching,
and doing the best we can to get our guys
the best they can be to play together. And I think,
(01:31):
you know, we're starting to cut down on more of
our mental mistakes. I'm never going to be completely satisfied
with that, but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
We're competing, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Sad when you look at Finley Bizjack and I was
actually watching some of his highlights the other day, how
long did it take you to be okay? With that
jump skip pass he does? It's kind of like a
wrap around that head. It's hard to describe, but it
looks fancy and you know it's pretty effective. But is
there a part of you that it's like, hold on, relax,
just be basic.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, if you remember, we we finally got Finn to
stop jumping on the bait or jumping out of bounds
and throwing it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
To the other team his first.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Year and a half here, and uh so, as long
as he's completing uh that pass that you're talking about him,
I'm perfectly fine with it. And but I'll say this,
he's a little bit of a risk taker and I
like that. I like guys that I don't want a
whole team full of him, that's for sure, but I
think that, you know, a lot of the things he
(02:33):
does is calculated. But you know, against Eastern Michigan, and
we talked about it with him, he had two turners
where he left his feet and uh and turned it
over and and and Finn wants to be a perfections.
He wants to play perfect every time and and uh,
you know, he's a very very coachable kid. But I
like the way that he's attacking right now on offense
and defense.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He's playing great defense.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah, he's definitely someone I just feel like you want
to probably coach that down a little bit and try
to coach it up as far as the aggressiveness and
the creativity. And then looking at his overall numbers, what
do you think has led to him being not only
a better score this year probably more opportunity granted, but
also the efficiency because he's not you know, averaging nineteen
(03:15):
on twenty two shots. I mean, he's been a very
efficient player this year.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, you know, he can really really shoot the ball.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
And he's still different in terms of how hard he
works on his game. And as I said, I think
last week things were starting to slow down for him
a little bit, just in terms of reading defenses and
reading situations. And that's the development you hope all your
players eventually make. And but no, he is. He's playing
(03:42):
very efficiently right now and us percentages are high, and
we need that with.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Him right now.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
I started the year for the Butler bulldogstad Mota with
this year on the payloss Slickers hotline. As he said,
Boise State coming up on Saturday, Red Panda in the
building at Hinklefield House Saturday after tell you.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Guys, I tell you guys a great story.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yes, when when I was retired, like I was going
to Butler games, I never knew that they did halftime shows.
I never knew that they did stuff at timeouts like
butting a golf ball or you know, run around a
baseball bat and trying to make a layup.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And I didn't know that. I was always busy.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And so this lady comes out on a unicycle or
whatever it's called, and I'm like, what is going on?
And my wife says, watching She's going to throw these
balls up and she never drops. I've seen this for years,
and it was the first time ever. I guess she
had dropped them, and she dropped two of them or something,
(04:41):
and my friends and I still laugh about it because
I'd never seen it before. That's one of the coolest
things I've ever seen, though, that lady doing that.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
She's the top five athlete of our generation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Coach, Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, you think about the coordination, you have to have,
the concentration. I mean, that's that's big time.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
The bright light of Hinkle get to everybody here, and
you're hoping it gets to the road team coming on
on Saturday. I want to go back to Tuesday Night. Mark,
our great producer, played a little Western music for you
on the lead in that got a little got a
little Western chippiness. Uh on Tuesday night? Did it not?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It really did? It really did.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
In fact, I, uh, my daughter and I were talking
after a game, we're going to get a player rejected
every game to get the crowd going.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Our crowd got into.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
That game after that thing happened, and uh No, that
was a kind of electrified Hinkle, which hopefully he will
continue and uh, but that was that was a rough
physical uh you know, loose balls scrapping and Eastern Michigan
was playing really hard as well.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Any update on the ankle Andrew Jalen Jackson, No.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
We're still uh waiting him and he's out, he's still
in the boot and and uh we just we we
don't know yet. You know, hopefully we're going to know
something here, but he has he has not practiced, so
you know, we definitely definitely miss him. There's no question
about that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I like that, get back to that chippiness. The other
night there was a quote in the Indie Star from
Findley Bisjack who said, we had a media timeout and
I told everyone this is a bar fight. Do you
remember that moment?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I don't think I was in there yet, but I
like that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I like that and it's kind of what it turned into,
just with the physicality, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So what do we need to get done here as
a team between now and really the full on start
of conference playing a couple of weeks, Like, what do
you want to get accomplished here?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I want to continue to develop our offense and just
continue to get our flow better, and I think we
get the ball moving quicker and we get to cut harder.
I think, you know, defensively, continuing to know the coverages
that we're in and which are ever changing. It depends
on who we have in the game, who they have
in the game, and just just alleviating, you know, some
(06:57):
of the mental mistake and which is you know, it's
playing games, it's it's teaching, coaching and film their long,
long film session yesterday, and you know, just just trying
to continue to play better basketball, sound er basketball, and
and doing all the fundamental things. And you know, I
tell you guys every day and we can't take a
(07:17):
step forward take two steps backwards.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
We gotta we gotta keep moving forward. And these guys
have been good with that.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
One more from me, Stink Robinson. I remember watching him
at Lawrence North throughout the years, a very talented player.
How have you seen him just develop and grow more
and more when it comes to the college game.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know, it's it's amazing because you know, we're jaling
out this summer and we've talked to out the staff.
He's gotten a lot of reps and now you know
he's moved into the starting lineup, and he's he's probably
playing more than than most freshmen have the opportunity to.
And Xavier's a guy that he wants to please, he
wants to do things, and I just see his development
(08:00):
just continues to grow.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And you know, one of the things that we gotta
getim do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Is he leads us in files right now and he's
picking up a couple of files a game that he
probably doesn't need to. But I think you're just going
to continue to see him get better and better and better.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Coach is always thanks for joining us during the course
of the week. We look forward to saying, now you
do this weekend against Boise Stateton, we'll do it again
next week.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Have fun, all right, sounds good, guys. Thanks
If you were listening to a fan morning show on
sports Radio ninety three five and one oh seven five fan,
good morning, it can only mean one thing as we
get ready to talk to basketball. It's getting in the
middle of December here, getting some games under our belt,
and things are going well over at Hinklefield House. For
our next guest, Dad Model, the head basketball coach for
(00:33):
the Butler Bulldogs, who joined us on the Paidlesslikers Hotline
this morning, Coach, I would think, so far, so good.
You're pretty pleased with the development of this team. Good morning,
And and are how are things going over there for you?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're uh, you know, like you said, I'm pleased with
the building that we're making. I still think we've got
a long long way to go, and but I think
every team's like that, every coach is like that. And
you know, we've got to act the stretch coming up
here starting Saturday. The boys, he stayed, a really really
good team. And our thing is is we tell our guys,
(01:09):
we just want to be better today than we were yesterday.
And you know, so far of this group is a
tremendous work ethic, and you know, we had a little
bit of a quick prep for Saturday's game. They haven't
played for probably a week and a half since Maui,
And you know, we just got to keep keep uh coaching, teaching,
and doing the best we can to get our guys
the best they can be to play together. And I think,
(01:31):
you know, we're starting to cut down on more of
our mental mistakes. I'm never going to be completely satisfied
with that, but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
We're competing, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Sad when you look at Finley Bizjack and I was
actually watching some of his highlights the other day, how
long did it take you to be okay? With that
jump skip pass he does? It's kind of like a
wrap around that head. It's hard to describe, but it
looks fancy and you know it's pretty effective. But is
there a part of you that it's like, hold on, relax,
just be basic.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, if you remember, we we finally got Finn to
stop jumping on the bait or jumping out of bounds
and throwing it.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
To the other team his first.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Year and a half here, and uh so, as long
as he's completing uh that pass that you're talking about him,
I'm perfectly fine with it. And but I'll say this,
he's a little bit of a risk taker and I
like that. I like guys that I don't want a
whole team full of him, that's for sure, but I
think that, you know, a lot of the things he
(02:33):
does is calculated. But you know, against Eastern Michigan, and
we talked about it with him, he had two turners
where he left his feet and uh and turned it
over and and and Finn wants to be a perfections.
He wants to play perfect every time and and uh,
you know, he's a very very coachable kid. But I
like the way that he's attacking right now on offense
and defense.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He's playing great defense.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah, he's definitely someone I just feel like you want
to probably coach that down a little bit and try
to coach it up as far as the aggressiveness and
the creativity. And then looking at his overall numbers, what
do you think has led to him being not only
a better score this year probably more opportunity granted, but
also the efficiency because he's not you know, averaging nineteen
(03:15):
on twenty two shots. I mean, he's been a very
efficient player this year.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, you know, he can really really shoot the ball.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
And he's still different in terms of how hard he
works on his game. And as I said, I think
last week things were starting to slow down for him
a little bit, just in terms of reading defenses and
reading situations. And that's the development you hope all your
players eventually make. And but no, he is. He's playing
(03:42):
very efficiently right now and us percentages are high, and
we need that with.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Him right now.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
I started the year for the Butler bulldogstad Mota with
this year on the payloss Slickers hotline. As he said,
Boise State coming up on Saturday, Red Panda in the
building at Hinklefield House Saturday after tell you.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Guys, I tell you guys a great story.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yes, when when I was retired, like I was going
to Butler games, I never knew that they did halftime shows.
I never knew that they did stuff at timeouts like
butting a golf ball or you know, run around a
baseball bat and trying to make a layup.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And I didn't know that. I was always busy.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And so this lady comes out on a unicycle or
whatever it's called, and I'm like, what is going on?
And my wife says, watching She's going to throw these
balls up and she never drops. I've seen this for years,
and it was the first time ever. I guess she
had dropped them, and she dropped two of them or something,
(04:41):
and my friends and I still laugh about it because
I'd never seen it before. That's one of the coolest
things I've ever seen, though, that lady doing that.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
She's the top five athlete of our generation.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Coach, Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, you think about the coordination, you have to have,
the concentration. I mean, that's that's big time.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
The bright light of Hinkle get to everybody here, and
you're hoping it gets to the road team coming on
on Saturday. I want to go back to Tuesday Night. Mark,
our great producer, played a little Western music for you
on the lead in that got a little got a
little Western chippiness. Uh on Tuesday night? Did it not?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It really did? It really did.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
In fact, I, uh, my daughter and I were talking
after a game, we're going to get a player rejected
every game to get the crowd going.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Our crowd got into.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
That game after that thing happened, and uh No, that
was a kind of electrified Hinkle, which hopefully he will
continue and uh, but that was that was a rough
physical uh you know, loose balls scrapping and Eastern Michigan
was playing really hard as well.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Any update on the ankle Andrew Jalen Jackson, No.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
We're still uh waiting him and he's out, he's still
in the boot and and uh we just we we
don't know yet. You know, hopefully we're going to know
something here, but he has he has not practiced, so
you know, we definitely definitely miss him. There's no question
about that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I like that, get back to that chippiness. The other
night there was a quote in the Indie Star from
Findley Bisjack who said, we had a media timeout and
I told everyone this is a bar fight. Do you
remember that moment?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I don't think I was in there yet, but I
like that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I like that and it's kind of what it turned into,
just with the physicality, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So what do we need to get done here as
a team between now and really the full on start
of conference playing a couple of weeks, Like, what do
you want to get accomplished here?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I want to continue to develop our offense and just
continue to get our flow better, and I think we
get the ball moving quicker and we get to cut harder.
I think, you know, defensively, continuing to know the coverages
that we're in and which are ever changing. It depends
on who we have in the game, who they have
in the game, and just just alleviating, you know, some
(06:57):
of the mental mistake and which is you know, it's
playing games, it's it's teaching, coaching and film their long,
long film session yesterday, and you know, just just trying
to continue to play better basketball, sound er basketball, and
and doing all the fundamental things. And you know, I
tell you guys every day and we can't take a
(07:17):
step forward take two steps backwards.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
We gotta we gotta keep moving forward. And these guys
have been good with that.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
One more from me, Stink Robinson. I remember watching him
at Lawrence North throughout the years, a very talented player.
How have you seen him just develop and grow more
and more when it comes to the college game.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know, it's it's amazing because you know, we're jaling
out this summer and we've talked to out the staff.
He's gotten a lot of reps and now you know
he's moved into the starting lineup, and he's he's probably
playing more than than most freshmen have the opportunity to.
And Xavier's a guy that he wants to please, he
wants to do things, and I just see his development
(08:00):
just continues to grow.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And you know, one of the things that we gotta
getim do.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Is he leads us in files right now and he's
picking up a couple of files a game that he
probably doesn't need to. But I think you're just going
to continue to see him get better and better and better.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Coach is always thanks for joining us during the course
of the week. We look forward to saying, now you
do this weekend against Boise Stateton, we'll do it again
next week.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Have fun, all right, sounds good, guys. Thanks
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