Both the Butler Bulldogs (31-4, 15-20 ATS) and Kansas State Wildcats (29-7, 20-9-2 ATS) have taken incredibly different routes to get to today’s Elite 8 match-up, but that doesn’t mean this one won’t stack up. This March Madness betting battle from Salt lake City, UT is scheduled for a 4:30 ET tip and can be seen live on CBS.
The Bulldogs are 4-point March Madness betting odds favorites and the over/under is 135.
The #5 Bulldogs will be the highest seed to lace their shoes up in the Elite 8 on Saturday.
Though this tournament has been littered with a number of shocking upsets, the one Butler just pulled off on the West Region’s #1 seed was by far the most impressive.
Though they only ended up winning by four points (63-59), head coach Brad Stevens’ kids dominated the Orange from the opening tip.
The defense limited Andy Rautins and company to just 43.8 percent shooting from the field, which is insane considering the Orange entered the game shooting better than a 51 percent clip on the year.
They held their own on the glass, but the most unbelievable turn of events came in the turnover department. Butler only coughed the ball up seven times against Cuse’s 2-3 zone, but they forced a whopping 18 turnovers themselves to keep head coach Jim Boeheim’s kids at an arm’s length the entire game.
The Butler Bulldogs have now rattled off 23 straight victories and covered the spread in 11 of those games. While they’re 16-4 SU & 9-11 ATS on the road, they stand just 4-3 SU & 3-4 ATS on neutral courts.
If you asked an average Joe college basketball fan which team out of the state of Kansas he thought would make it to this year’s Elite 8, Kansas would have undoubtedly come out of their mouth.
Be that as it may, head coach/drill sergeant Frank Martin has the purple and silver in the Elite 8 for the first time since 1988.
It didn’t come easy however as the Kansas State Wildcats Sweet 16 battle with the Xavier Musketeers will go down in the history books as one of the most epic college basketball betting battles of all time.
If you got on the Wildcats bus early, you cashed your pointspread ticket. But the majority of the betting public ended up pushing in double overtime after K-State gutted out the 101-96 win.
Everything clicked for the Wildcats as the big men more than held up their ends of the bargain, and the guards shined. Both Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen knocked down big shot after big shot until 50 minutes of game action was put in the books.
The victory improved the Wildcats to 5-1 SU & 4-1-1 ATS their L/6 games. They enter tonight’s battle with Butler 8-2 SU & 6-3-1 ATS in their 10 neutral court CBB betting battles.
This will be the first time these programs faced one another on the hardwood.
While Butler boasts an impressive 22-7 ATS tally the L/29 times it was installed underdogs, the Bulldogs are just 3-8 ATS their L/11 neutral site battles and just 2-10 ATS following a pointspread win the L/12 times.
As for Kansas State, it’s a perfect 8-0-1 ATS its L/9 non-conference games and 6-0-1 ATS the L/7 times it was installed a neutral site favorite. That said; the Wildcats have struggled for their betting backers against solid defensive teams allowing less than 64 PPG going just 13-14 ATS the L/3 seasons (4-5 ATS in 2009-10).
Mike Rose has been in the sports handicapping business for over a decade, and is a leading sports writer for some of the top sports betting news websites on the internet. To keep up with him on a daily basis, you can