Kansas State vs. Butler Prediction: 2010 Elite Eight Odds: March 27th 2010

Butler Bulldogs vs. Kansas State Wildcats
Prediction: Click here for expert college basketball picks | Bet: Click here to bet on this game | Odds: Click here for current odds

The lone mid-major squad left standing amongst the eight teams with a chance to win the NCAA Tournament will tackle one of the favorites left to win it all on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, where the #5 Butler Bulldogs (31-4, 15-20 ATS) and #2 Kansas State Wildcats (29-7, 20-9-2 ATS) will engage in a March Madness betting affair. The Bulldogs are fresh off of the 63-59 upset win over #1 Syracuse, while they also have wins against UTEP and Murray State to get to this point. K-State absolutely rolled through its first two foes in North Texas and BYU, but a thrilling 101-96 double overtime win was one of the most exciting games of the entire tournament.

Butler was a team built on defense, allowing under 60 points per game, but it is going to need to get some offensive production from someone in the backcourt to try to keep up with KSU’s lethal shooters. Finally against the Cuse, F Gordon Hayward stepped up and reached his scoring average, as he had put together six straight college basketball betting battles in which he failed to better his 15.9 points per game. He put up 17 against the Orange, and will probably need at least that many in order to stick with the Wildcats.

Those Cats may have the best guard tandem in the entire country in Gs Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente. The two have carried the squad through the Big XII all season long, averaging 19.1 and 16.5 points per game respectively. However, they did far better than that against the X-Men (53 combined points). Don’t rest on the abilities of the inside men either, as both F Jamar Samuels and F Curtis Kelly are shooting above 56 percent from the floor on the year and each are scoring over 11 points per game.

The Bulldogs may be sporting the nation’s longest winning streak at 22 games, but the NCAA Tournament betting trends are going against them in this one. They’re only 2-10 ATS in their L/12 clashes following an ATS victory, while KSU is 16-4-2 ATS in its L/22 games as a favorite, is 8-0-1 ATS in its L/9 non-conference games, and is 4-0 ATS in its L/4 tries against Horizon League foes.

Visit Touthouse.com for more NCAA basketball picks from our professional sports handicappers. Be sure to sign-up for our free sports predictions newsletter for exclusive betting information from our experts. Preview Courtesy of North Shore Sports Inc.