rankings by espn's andy katz and fox sports' jeff goodman released shortly after the 2010 championship game both had butler third for the 2010–2011 season. duke coach mike krzyzewski agreed, saying butler would be"right up there, no. 1 or no. 2... they'll be a favorite next year." however, hayward chose to leave early for the nba draft and butler went through a rough patch early in the season, at one point losing three straight games and having a 6–5 conference record. bolstered by the emergence of andrew smith at center and matt howard's success as a perimeter forward, butler ended up winning a share of the conference title at 13–5. the bulldogs then won the horizon league tournament to secure an automatic ncaa tournament bid, and received an 8 seed.