Murray State vs. Butler Prediction: March 20th 2010 NCAA Tournament Picks

Murray State vs. Butler
Free Prediction: Murray State +4.5
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Murray St. is a very tough matchup for Butler. The Racers are quick, deep and athletic and being as balanced as they are makes them tough to defend because there is no one player to key on. Murray St. has six players averaging between 9.5 ppg and 10.6 ppg and it simply does not get more balanced than that. To be fair, the Ohio Valley Conference is far from a strong conference and the only real non-conference test came at California early in the season where the Racers lost by only five points. As good and balanced as the offense is, Murray St. relies a lot on a strong defense that held opponents to just 38.9 percent shooting from the floor. Because they are so quick, they force a ton of turnovers, close to 17 per game, and they allowed opponents to post a 0.67 assist/turnover ratio. While the OVC is weak as mentioned, the Horizon League is not much better. That is the main reason that Butler has won 21 straight games and a reason why that streak is in jeopardy. The Bulldogs played a near flawless second half against UTEP on Thursday where it made 10 three-pointers and was able to easily erase a six-point halftime deficit. This team is very good, don’t get me wrong, but it pays more often than not to actually go against teams that are coming off such a good effort. Prior to the win over the Miners, the Bulldogs had a nice win over Siena during Bracket Buster weekend but other than that, nothing else stands out. Sure they defeated Ohio St. back in December but if Even Turner played that game, things would have turned out differently. A one-point win at home over Xavier was the only other win against a tournament team so the résumé is far from impressive. The public will see that long winning streak and a short line and be all over the Bulldogs and that is already the case as of Friday night where the majority of the action is on them. Murray St. got a fortunate break to make it to this game but it carries that momentum forward on Saturday. 3* Murray St. Racers