{"id":27564,"date":"2013-01-30T22:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T03:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=27564"},"modified":"2013-01-30T22:00:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T03:00:18","slug":"ncaa-basketball-picks-butler-bulldogs-vs-saint-louis-billikens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-basketball-picks-butler-bulldogs-vs-saint-louis-billikens-27564\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Basketball Picks: Butler Bulldogs vs. Saint Louis Billikens"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 9 Butler Bulldogs at Saint Louis Billikens
\nThursday, 1\/31\/12, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Sports Network
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Saint Louis -2
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Saint Louis -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 122.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 122.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Saint Louis Billikens lead the Atlantic 10 Conference in scoring defense entering Thursday night’s action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Butler will renew a former conference rivalry when it visits St. Louis at Chaifetz Arena, as it comes off an 83-71 victory over the Temple Owls as six-point home favorites, while going OVER the posted total of 129.\u00a0 The Bulldogs will be playing on the road for the fourth time in six Atlantic 10 Conference games, while they\u2019ve gone 9-3-2 ATS in their last 14 Thursday affairs.\u00a0 Offensively, the team has four starting players averaging in double figures, with senior Rotnei Clarke leading the way in scoring 16.7 points per game.\u00a0 Butler is 6-0 ATS in its last six road games, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your NCAA basketball picks Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs are 11-16 all-time in this series, but have won three of the last four meetings.\u00a0 Butler\u2019s last win on the road in this series came on Jan. 9, 1991, while it has tallied a 4-8 mark in that situation overall.\u00a0 Clarke is fourth in the conference in scoring, while senior Andrew Smith is fourth in shooting 57.5 percent from the field.<\/p>\n

Saint Louis has won consecutive games since dropping two in a row, including a 67-57 victory over Saint Bonaventure as three-point road favorites last time out, while going UNDER the total for the first time in three contests.\u00a0 The Billikens will play the highest ranked opponent in their history when playing at this venue in this contest, which is something to consider when looking over the college basketball odds page.\u00a0 Defensively, the team leads the conference in allowing just 57.8 points per game, including a recent streak of holding four consecutive foes to 46 or fewer points.\u00a0 Saint Louis is 5-2 ATS following a straight-up win.<\/p>\n

The Billikens have a balanced offensive attack, with seven players averaging 7.0 points or more per game, while three are managing double figures.\u00a0 Senior forward Cody Ellis leads the group in scoring 11.2 points per game despite not having a single start.\u00a0 Offensively, the squad ranks fifth in the league in knocking down 35.5 percent of its attempts from beyond the arc, with junior guard Mike McCall Jr. doing a lot of the damage.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Billikens due to their 4-0 ATS mark following a spread victory.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 9 Butler Bulldogs at Saint Louis Billikens Thursday, 1\/31\/12, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Sports Network Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Saint Louis -2 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Saint Louis -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 122.5 Current Total:\u00a0 122.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Butler will renew a former conference rivalry when it visits St. Louis at Chaifetz Arena, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":26001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[5790,7182,695,7352,7351,4250],"class_list":["post-27564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-andrew-smith","tag-atlantic-10-conference","tag-butler-bulldogs","tag-cody-ellis","tag-rotnei-clarke","tag-saint-louis-billikens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27566,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions\/27566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}