March Madness Betting Preview: Butler Bulldogs vs. Kansas State Wildcats
 Butler Bulldogs (31-4, 15-20 ATS) |
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 Kansas State Wildcats (29-7, 20-9-2 ATS) |
College basketball betting action in the Elite 8 kicks off on Saturday at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, where either the #5 Butler Bulldogs or #2 Kansas State Wildcats will clinch up a berth in the Final Four in Indianapolis. Butler was largely thought to be a paper tiger after beating two double digit seeds to get to this point, but knocking off #1 Syracuse 63-59 in the Sweet 16 turned plenty of heads. If the Cats reach the Final Four, no one is going to accuse them of having taken an overly difficult route to get here either, as this will be the highest seed that they have faced yet in the tourney, but the 101-96 double overtime win over #6 Xavier on Thursday was much deserved.
The Bulldogs are a team that is built on their defense, and that was made ever so apparent in the way that they frustrated the Syracuse offense all night long. The offense wasn’t spectacular at just 63 points, especially considering the fact that only three of those points came from the bench, but the ‘D’ held an offense that was shooting over 51 percent for the season to just 43.8 percent. Butler also forced 18 turnovers, including five steals by G Ronald Nored. G Gordon Heyward is still below his scoring average for the tournament, but he is averaging a team high 12.5 points per game in the dance.
Gs Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente are both scoring over 20 points per game though, and if their team reaches the Final Four, they’re both going to be strong contenders for the MVP of this tournament. The Wildcats averaged 80.4 points per game this year, and that number has only been boosted by their tournament high 89.0 points per game average in March Madness betting action. KSU has to be careful on the glass, especially after getting outrebounded by the Musketeers 38-36 on Thursday.
Tempo is going to be crucial in this game. They always say that it’s easier to slow a team up than to speed it up, and no matter how hard KSU tries, it probably won’t be able to take Butler out of its game plan. That being said, the Wildcats are too talented to lose this game. As long as Clemente and Pullen weren’t totally worn out by that double overtime thriller on Thursday, KSU should be going to Indianapolis. However, if we had to take a guess, Butler is going to put up one heck of a fight and stick within this number.
Selection: Butler Bulldogs
The Bulldogs are 5-2 ATS in their L/7 games against teams with at least a .600 winning percentage. Butler is +4.5 in this NCAA Tournament betting affair. For all of your Elite 8 betting spreads, totals, moneylines, and props, sign up for an account at Bookmaker Sportsbook!
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