"Absolute flamethrower","a damn dryer": College hoops fans rave about Solo Ball as 21yr old star leads the way for UConn vs Butler

College basketball fans were treated to an impressive performance from Solo Ball as the sophomore guard for UConn led his team to an 80-78 overtime win against Butler on Tuesday. Ball poured in a career-high 23 points at XL Center.

This was a crucial win for the No. 19 Huskies, who suffered a surprising home loss to Creighton over the weekend. The Bulldogs gave a tough test to Dan Hurley's squad, forcing the game into overtime, but ultimately Ball and company prevailed.

On X (formerly Twitter), fans showered praise on Ball's effort. Here are some of the reactions:

"Solo Ball: Absolute flamethrower," one fan wrote.

"Solo Ball deserves more attention for the jump he's made as a sophomore. 23 and six rebounds tonight in UConn's win over Butler. A terrific player," one user said.

"Solo a damn fryer," a fan stated.

"Never get bored from watching solo," another fan tweeted.

Here are a few more tweets from fans:

"My Solo Ball take is Correct. He’s a A-10 Level Defender. He’s a Big East Offensive Level player," one fan added.

"Time to start talking about Solo Ball being one of the best 3pt shooters in UConn history. After tonight he is shooting 45.1% from the 3," another user wrote.

Solo Ball speaks about UConn's defensive performance

Ball had a huge offensive game for the Huskies in Tuesday night’s win over Butler. He scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds.

However, his defense still had some issues, as UConn coach Dan Hurley pointed out in the postgame press conference.

"His beginning of the game defense was not very good," Hurley said.

A reporter asked Ball about the team's defensive performance, and he was honest in his assessment.

"I think I'm definitely still growing, and as a team, I feel like we're also still growing," Ball said postgame. "It's just a little adjustments that we have to make as a team and just continue to get better through practice and all the work that we put in."

"Coach was talking about it when we were into a couple of media breaks. He was just talking to us about locking in on defense."

Defense has been a huge problem for the Huskies this season, which is one of the reasons they have already lost two conference games. On average, they allow 68.1 points per game, and opponents are shooting 49.5%.

The Huskies (14-5, 6-2 Big East) will need to shore up their defense if they want to defend their national title. They play Xavier next on Saturday at Cintas Center.