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The Butler Bulldogs are gunning for a Top Four seed in the NCAA Tournament next month. Butler can essentially lock itself into the No. 2 seed in the Big East tournament with a win on Sunday against the Xavier Musketeers, and use that as a springboard for their goal. As for Xavier, the Musketeers can consider themselves in the tournament with another win, and this would be the sweetest one. Butler knocked off Xavier earlier in the season and revenge in Cincinnati would be a nice treat.
This war on the floor will go down Sunday, February 26, 2017, at 3:30 p.m. ET at the Cintas Center. This game will be televised live on FS1. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Sunday schedule.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Butler scored a huge victory on Wednesday night, when the Bulldogs knocked off conference champion Villanova on the road. The win greatly boosted Butler’s NCAA Tournament resume and gives this team a great deal of confidence it can get it done on the road after struggling away from Indianapolis for much of the season. Each of the Bulldogs’ last four games have ended up over the total.
Xavier is in a tailspin. The Musketeers have lost four in a row and even worse for bettors, have gone five games in a row without a cover. That skid not only knocked this team out of contention for the Big East title, but left them needing another win in order to feel safe come Selection Sunday. Overall, they have covered just one of their last nine games.
Last Meeting
It was a tale of two halves when these teams met back in early January in Indianapolis. The Musketeers had grinded out a 6-point halftime lead thanks to some solid defense, but the second half was completely different from the first. While the first half had just 56 points, the second half had 105 points in total and Butler completely exploded in the second half.
The performance of Kamar Baldwin was paramount to Butler’s success in this game. Baldwin was but a whisper in the first half, failing to tally a point in 20 minutes of action as the players in front of him struggled to put the ball in the hoop. However, in the second half, he keyed the comeback for the Bulldogs. Baldwin scored 21 in the second half to lead the team and his nine rebounds also led the team. He has been a little hit or miss, but has stepped up in big games.
Key Stat
Butler has been one of the worst rebounding teams in all of college basketball and that will have to change when these teams square off. The Bulldogs are averaging just a shade under 33 rebounds a game on the season, but don’t have the bodies inside to compete against bigger teams.
Surprisingly, when these teams last met it was Butler that had the rebounding advantage, but the Bulldogs also got a lot of help from their guards. Butler was able to haul in a lot of long rebounds and that will be something that is hard to replicate. Xavier should have the advantage on the glass this time around and Butler needs to find a way to overcome it.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
The other big thing to take away from the prior meeting between these two teams is how many times they went to the free throw line. In the last meeting, Butler and Xavier combined to step to the charity stripe 77 times, an amount that won’t be replicated. That led to such an explosive second half and pushed the game over the total.
There won’t be as many whistles this time around and this should be a much cleaner game. As such, Xavier is at home and in need of a win, and with the height advantage will be able to secure the victory.
College Basketball Odds: Xavier 77, Butler 70
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