The Blue Jays completely destroyed Butler to the tune of a 88-60 final back on January 14. The Bulldogs have looked anything but impressive given their recent three game losing streak, but they get the fortunate break of catching Doug McDermott and Co. in a classic sandwich spot when Creighton comes to town tonight.
The Blue Jays come off a tough loss at St. John’s and get a rematch with Villanova on Sunday, making this game one that could struggle to hold their attention. Butler has a beyond anemic offense and has been far worse at Hinkle this year when compared to the Brad Stevens era.
The first match-up saw Creighton’s offense get going as they finished the first half on a 32-9 run and never looked back. They received 36 bench points, a testimony to the absurd depth they have which has helped them overcome the Grant Gibbs injury.
Butler is 2-10 in conference and haven’t been terribly competitive too often this year. They will be praying for a weak shooting day from the Blue Jays to have any chance, but I had this spread at eight and oddsmaker seem to agree with me.
Butler is good enough defensively to likely improve upon the 1.40 points per possession figure they surrendered in the first go around, but their offense has enough question marks to make it justified in seeing Vegas throw out a number this big.
Aside from the situational aspects discussed, Butler is coming off a beat down at the hands of Xavier. They will ooh to bounce back here and should play more inspired in front of the home crowd. I could see a play on Butler 1H being worth while if the number is significant enough, but given the fairness of the full game number, this is probably a pass.
