Marquette -3.5 vs. Butler

[BM1090]

Edit: Assuming the opening line I saw was an error.

It's a road game and Butler has been better of late, but I think MU wins this one going away.

[PointWarrior]

well according to SilverWarrior's usual drivel at the other board, a 1 point win will be lucky to be had.

We could be playing the Little Sisters of the Poor at home with them missing 3 starters due to COVID and he would still right a "beware of the little sisters" post...

[Daniel]

well according to SilverWarrior's usual drivel at the other board, a 1 point win will be lucky to be had.

We could be playing the Little Sisters of the Poor at home with them missing 3 starters due to COVID and he would still right a "beware of the little sisters" post...

Night be his superstitious good luck thing......

[Jay Bee]

Seems like years since we've been the favorite inna game

[onepost]

Pulled up the ESPN app and it says MU -3.5.
Am I missing something here where the line dropped 3 points in 4 hours?

[PGsHeroes32]

Pulled up the ESPN app and it says MU -3.5.
Am I missing something here where the line dropped 3 points in 4 hours?

Betonline has it at 2.5 right now.

[MU82]

Hell ... at this rate we'll be losing by 4 at the tip!

[BM1090]

Weird. I got mine via oddsshark which still says opening -6.5 but current -2.5

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

14.3% of Butler's FGAs this season have been blocked this season. Kur is going to feast.

[MU82]

14.3% of Butler's FGAs this season have been blocked this season. Kur is going to feast.

That really is an incredible stat. It seems almost impossible that of every 100 shots they take, 14% get blocked. Wow.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Butler is bad at everything on offense. They're awful from three, not as awful but still bad inside the arc. As previously mentioned they get stuffed a ton. The one thing they do sort of well on offense is that they don't let the opponent steal the ball very often...but they do give up a ton of non-steal TOs (which are our forte). They also don't crash the offensive glass particularly well or get to the free throw line.

Defensively they are stronger but still not great. They are decent on the defensive glass (not that we try to grab offensive boards anyway). And they have an elite 3P defense which is pretty much the entire reason for their defense being ranked higher. But they are sieves inside the arc (which happens when you have one rotation player over 6'7 and only two over 6'6 and the one 6'9 guy is not a rim protector). We will have the size advantage at every position. I want to see a ton of Morsell, Lewis, and OMax bullying their way to the rim and at least a couple of lobs and pocket passes to KurOso from Kolek.

Jordan has also greatly shortened his rotation with guys like Bolden and Groce getting their minutes all but removed in the last few weeks. They've been running a 7 man rotation with their two freshmen Jayden Taylor and Simas Lukosius as the two guys off the bench.

Fun fact, Butler hasn't scored more than 72 points in a game since November 24th....against Chaminade. Double fun fact, they've only scored more than 72 points on one other occasion this season, their November 12th win over the mighty Bears of Central Arkansas. So...get to 73 and we probably win.

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

[panda]

Butler is bad at everything on offense. They're awful from three, not as awful but still bad inside the arc. As previously mentioned they get stuffed a ton. The one thing they do sort of well on offense is that they don't let the opponent steal the ball very often...but they do give up a ton of non-steal TOs (which are our forte). They also don't crash the offensive glass particularly well or get to the free throw line.

Defensively they are stronger but still not great. They are decent on the defensive glass (not that we try to grab offensive boards anyway). And they have an elite 3P defense which is pretty much the entire reason for their defense being ranked higher. But they are sieves inside the arc (which happens when you have one rotation player over 6'7 and only two over 6'6 and the one 6'9 guy is not a rim protector). We will have the size advantage at every position. I want to see a ton of Morsell, Lewis, and OMax bullying their way to the rim and at least a couple of lobs and pocket passes to KurOso from Kolek.

Jordan has also greatly shortened his rotation with guys like Bolden and Groce getting their minutes all but removed in the last few weeks. They've been running a 7 man rotation with their two freshmen Jayden Taylor and Simas Lukosius as the two guys off the bench.

Fun fact, Butler hasn't scored more than 72 points in a game since November 24th....against Chaminade. Double fun fact, they've only scored more than 72 points on one other occasion this season, their November 12th win over the mighty Bears of Central Arkansas. So...get to 73 and we probably win.

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

Hodges makes them more "dynamic" on offense but agree - Home or away, we should expect to win this game.

[muwarrior69]

Butler is bad at everything on offense. They're awful from three, not as awful but still bad inside the arc. As previously mentioned they get stuffed a ton. The one thing they do sort of well on offense is that they don't let the opponent steal the ball very often...but they do give up a ton of non-steal TOs (which are our forte). They also don't crash the offensive glass particularly well or get to the free throw line.

Defensively they are stronger but still not great. They are decent on the defensive glass (not that we try to grab offensive boards anyway). And they have an elite 3P defense which is pretty much the entire reason for their defense being ranked higher. But they are sieves inside the arc (which happens when you have one rotation player over 6'7 and only two over 6'6 and the one 6'9 guy is not a rim protector). We will have the size advantage at every position. I want to see a ton of Morsell, Lewis, and OMax bullying their way to the rim and at least a couple of lobs and pocket passes to KurOso from Kolek.

Jordan has also greatly shortened his rotation with guys like Bolden and Groce getting their minutes all but removed in the last few weeks. They've been running a 7 man rotation with their two freshmen Jayden Taylor and Simas Lukosius as the two guys off the bench.

Fun fact, Butler hasn't scored more than 72 points in a game since November 24th....against Chaminade. Double fun fact, they've only scored more than 72 points on one other occasion this season, their November 12th win over the mighty Bears of Central Arkansas. So...get to 73 and we probably win.

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

Sounds like the perfect trap game.

[JTBMU7]

Line is now down to -1?

[MUEng92]

After reading how bad Butler is on offense, I fully expect them to shoot 73% percent from 3 today.  Old habits die hard

[We R Final Four]

Line is now down to -1?

What site has -1?
Bovada at -3.5.

[mileskishnish72]

Weird. I got mine via oddsshark which still says opening -6.5 but current -2.5

Possibility for a sweet middle.

[tower912]

So, a whole bunch of money has been bet on Butler.   All they do is set a line.   Where the money lands drives adjustments.

[Ardmore Mug]

Caesars @ -MARQ -3.5

[We R Final Four]

Butler is bad at everything on offense. They're awful from three, not as awful but still bad inside the arc. As previously mentioned they get stuffed a ton. The one thing they do sort of well on offense is that they don't let the opponent steal the ball very often...but they do give up a ton of non-steal TOs (which are our forte). They also don't crash the offensive glass particularly well or get to the free throw line.

Defensively they are stronger but still not great. They are decent on the defensive glass (not that we try to grab offensive boards anyway). And they have an elite 3P defense which is pretty much the entire reason for their defense being ranked higher. But they are sieves inside the arc (which happens when you have one rotation player over 6'7 and only two over 6'6 and the one 6'9 guy is not a rim protector). We will have the size advantage at every position. I want to see a ton of Morsell, Lewis, and OMax bullying their way to the rim and at least a couple of lobs and pocket passes to KurOso from Kolek.

Jordan has also greatly shortened his rotation with guys like Bolden and Groce getting their minutes all but removed in the last few weeks. They've been running a 7 man rotation with their two freshmen Jayden Taylor and Simas Lukosius as the two guys off the bench.

Fun fact, Butler hasn't scored more than 72 points in a game since November 24th....against Chaminade. Double fun fact, they've only scored more than 72 points on one other occasion this season, their November 12th win over the mighty Bears of Central Arkansas. So...get to 73 and we probably win.

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

Thank you for this.

[MU82]

Sounds like the perfect trap game.

Why? Because our guys will be looking ahead to Wednesday's big tussle against mighty Georgetown?

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

I agree, and I also agree that Lewis & Co. should be living in the lane. It also would be great to see the return of a few pick & roll dunks with Kolek and KK/Oso. If Butler packs the lane, and that's possible, I do hope that Greg, Kam, Morsell, etc, can hit a few 3s to loosen 'em up. It will be interesting to see which poison Jordan picks.

If I were a gambler, I'd be loving that betting line. Looks like a gift to me.

[jfp61]

Marq -3.5

In line with SQ, with 0.14% increase for efficiency at home.

Butler has drastically improved through conference play. Butler is the 67th best team over its last 6 games.

[willie warrior]

Butler is bad at everything on offense. They're awful from three, not as awful but still bad inside the arc. As previously mentioned they get stuffed a ton. The one thing they do sort of well on offense is that they don't let the opponent steal the ball very often...but they do give up a ton of non-steal TOs (which are our forte). They also don't crash the offensive glass particularly well or get to the free throw line.

Defensively they are stronger but still not great. They are decent on the defensive glass (not that we try to grab offensive boards anyway). And they have an elite 3P defense which is pretty much the entire reason for their defense being ranked higher. But they are sieves inside the arc (which happens when you have one rotation player over 6'7 and only two over 6'6 and the one 6'9 guy is not a rim protector). We will have the size advantage at every position. I want to see a ton of Morsell, Lewis, and OMax bullying their way to the rim and at least a couple of lobs and pocket passes to KurOso from Kolek.

Jordan has also greatly shortened his rotation with guys like Bolden and Groce getting their minutes all but removed in the last few weeks. They've been running a 7 man rotation with their two freshmen Jayden Taylor and Simas Lukosius as the two guys off the bench.

Fun fact, Butler hasn't scored more than 72 points in a game since November 24th....against Chaminade. Double fun fact, they've only scored more than 72 points on one other occasion this season, their November 12th win over the mighty Bears of Central Arkansas. So...get to 73 and we probably win.

Long story short, this is the kind of team we should feast on. I think we have the advantage at every single position and their weaknesses play into our strengths. As long as we don't return to our early season habit of playing down to our competition, I think we roll them.

Hope you are right. Dont really care about the spread, just keep winning. A loss to these guys would be like losing to DePaul. Kick their arse.

[brewcity77]

Butler has been much better at pick and roll defense since Hodges got healthy. I think they're going to give us some trouble on the defensive end, but hopefully their offense is bad enough that they don't take advantage.

In the past 3 weeks, since Hodges has been playing 25+ mpg, they are playing like the 67th best team in the country per T-Rank with a top-40 defense. While they're just 2-4, all the losses are by single digits with the last three being decided by a single possession.

I don't know that they have the offense to beat us, but they should be able to hang defensively and what they do best (limiting pick and roll) is exactly what we want to do on offense. First team to 60 probably wins in a low scoring affair decided by single digits.

[BM1090]

I wonder if oddshark had the opening line wrong. Action network lists the opening line at -2.5. It would be weird if it immediately jumped four points.

Think we cover relatively easily. Butler has been much better recently but so has MU.