{"id":14462,"date":"2011-03-26T11:44:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T16:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14462"},"modified":"2011-03-26T11:44:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T16:44:45","slug":"southeast-region-8-butler-bulldogs-vs-2-florida-gators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/southeast-region-8-butler-bulldogs-vs-2-florida-gators-14462\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Region: (8) Butler Bulldogs Vs. (2) Florida Gators"},"content":{"rendered":"

(8) Butler Bulldogs vs (2) Florida Gators<\/strong>
\nMar 26, 2011 at 4:30 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Florida -3.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Florida -4<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 131.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 133<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -150 \/ But +130<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -195 \/ But +165<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Shelvin Mack and Butler will take on the second seeded Gators today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don’t call it an upset.\u00a0 Butler has been “upsetting” people all tournament, and indeed over the last 10 years, to continually be the team that no one expects showing up in the sweet 16 and Final 4 on a regular basis.\u00a0 There have been a lot of disappointments, but also a sense of pride in showing more as a program than anyone could have expected.\u00a0 \u201cThe cool part is\u2014our guys\u2014it\u2019s not above their imagination,\u201d Butler coach Brad Stevens said of Butler’s continual “upsets,” \u201cIt\u2019s just what they think that we have to do next.\u201d\u00a0 If Butler can win tonight against the higher seeded Gators, they will be back in the Final Four for a second straight season and maybe not catch everyone off guard next year.<\/p>\n

Florida Coach Billy Donovan isn’t suprised as it is.\u00a0 \u201cButler has proven that they\u2019re as good as any program in the country,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to a national championship game or the amount of sweet 16s they\u2019ve gotten to by just being a Cinderella story. That doesn\u2019t happen year after year.\u201d\u00a0 Certainly, to call a team with Butler’s track record a Cinderella Story would be a slap in the face to Bulldogs, who have now showed they definitively have what it takes to succeed in March.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florida is 7-1 SU in their last 8 games and the total has gone OVER in 9 of Florida’s last 11 games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matchup Stats:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Butler overall scoring 72.06<\/strong>
\nFlorida overall defense 63.08<\/strong><\/p>\n

Butler away scoring 68.17<\/strong>
\nFlorida home defense 62.42<\/strong><\/p>\n

Butler road rebs 33.56<\/strong>
\nFlorida home rebs 31.42<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florida home scoring 73.08<\/strong>
\nButler road defense 65.11<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florida home rebounds 37.71<\/strong>
\nButler road rebounds 32.78<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florida sports a balanced attack that is very lethal.\u00a0 They have four starters (Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Vernon Macklin and Chandler Parons) that have averaged double figures.\u00a0 The one who didn’t average double figures, Alex Tyus, managed to score 19 against BYU while grabbing 17 rebounds.\u00a0 Leading scorer Erving Walker has scored 18, 21, and 16 points this tournament, an 18.3 point per game average, a full 3.5 points higher than his season average.\u00a0 He scored in double figures in all but 6 Florida games, but the Gators were 5-1 in those 6 games in which he scored less than ten, anyway.\u00a0 Kenny Boynton, a 6’2″ sophomore guard, has averaged 14 points per game in the tournament and put up 17 against Butler, though he did shoot just 5 of 14 from the floor.\u00a0 If Boynton and Walker can manage to get quality shots, it will go a long way towards ensuring a Gators victory.<\/p>\n

Butler’s duo of Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack are going to receive most of the attention for Butler, and rightfully so.\u00a0 Both are the only players on Butler to play more than 30 minutes a game on average and to average in double figures in pionts with 16.7 for Howard and 15.6 for Mack.\u00a0\u00a0 Howard, a 6’8″ senior forward, also averages a team high 7.7 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Howard recorded 8 double doubles this year and Butler was 5-3 in those 8 games.\u00a0 Mack, a 6’3″ junior\u00a0 guard, leads the team in assists per game with 3.6 a game and putsu p 15.6 points per game.\u00a0 He shot 35.1% from three this year (74 of 211), but his overall field goal percentage was a bit low at 40.8%.\u00a0 Butler will obviously rely heavily on this duo and if even one of them suffers an ankle sprain or gets in foul trouble, Butler will be in serious trouble.<\/p>\n

Truly, Florida’s depth might make the difference.\u00a0 Their balanced attack leaves them less vulnerable to foul troubles and injuries so they can more afford to have a player have a set back as such.\u00a0 Butler is an outstanding team, but there is a reason why Florida is favored, even if ever so slightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(8) Butler Bulldogs vs (2) Florida Gators Mar 26, 2011 at 4:30 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Florida -3.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Florida -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 131.5 Current Total:\u00a0 133 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -150 \/ But +130 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Fla -195 \/ But +165 Don’t call it an upset.\u00a0 Butler has been “upsetting” people all tournament, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[695,499],"class_list":["post-14462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-butler-bulldogs","tag-florida-gators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14463,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14462\/revisions\/14463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}