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Free Picks: #6 Butler vs. #11 Texas Gambling Lines & Handicapping Preview

NCAAB Betting? Bulldogs vs Longhorns Predictions

NCAA Basketball tournament action sees the #6 Butler Bulldogs doing battle with the #11 Texas Longhorns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Cappers Picks provides free NCAA basketball picks all season long.

NCAA tournament action kicks off with the 6th seeded Bulldogs from the Big East taking on the Longhorns out of the Big 12.

NCAA Basketball Odds

#6 Butler Bulldogs (22-10) vs. #11 Texas Longhorns (20-13)
Thursday, March 19th
2:45 PM ET
CONSOL Energy Arena (Pittsburgh, PA)
CBS
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines: Texas -1.5
NCAA Basketball O/U: 123.5
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Even though the Bulldogs sit as a higher seed than the Longhorns, they still come in listed as an underdog from Vegas. This is nothing new to Butler as they are used to entering March as an overlooked team. As far as the Longhorns are concerned, the 11th seed in the Midwest region looks to avenge blowing their big lead in the Big 12 tournament and rebound from their loss to Iowa State.

Butler

The #6 seeded Bulldogs come in off an overtime loss to the Xavier Musketeers in the Big East tournament. The Bulldogs fell 67-61 in a game that saw them shoot less than 40 percent from the field.

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Butler fell behind with less than 4 minutes to play in the overtime session and was unable to rebound as they watched the Musketeer pull away.

Leading Butler was Senior G Alex Barlow who had 22 points and 4 rebounds in the losing effort. It was the 2nd straight year Butler fell short in their first game of the Big East tournament.

Also contributing for Butler was Junior G Kellen Dunham. The 6-6 Junior dropped in 17 points and grabbed 2 rebounds in the loss. Dunham was averaging 16.7 points a game to go along with 2.6 rebounds.

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If Butler hopes to hold off the Longhorns, Barlow and Dunham will need to contribute similar performances.

Butler went 2-3 S.U. and 2-3 ATS in 5 neutral sight meetings this season.

Texas

The Longhorns look to avenge their buzzer beating defeat to the hands of the Iowa State Cyclones when they take the floor on Thursday afternoon. The Longhorns led by as many as 16 in the first half, only to see the Cyclones comeback and hit a shot at the buzzer to eliminate the Longhorns from Big 12 tournament play.

Texas brings in a 20-13 record, but just an 8-10 conference record. Texas finished conference play winning 3 straight in the regular season, but was unable to advance further than the quarter-finals in tournament play.

The Longhorns are led by Sophomore G Isaiah Taylor, who is scoring 13.0 points a game. The guard is also averaging 3.3 rebounds a game to go along with 4.6 assists a game.

Also leading the Longhorns is Freshman F Myles Turner. The 6-11 forward averaged 10.4 points a game and grabbed 6.4 rebounds a game.

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In neutral sight games this season, Texas is 3-1 S.U.

NCAA Basketball Trends:

  • Longhorns are 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 Thursday games.
  • Longhorns are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games following a S.U. loss.
  • Bulldogs are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games following a S.U. loss.
  • Bulldogs are 42-17-1 ATS in their last 60 neutral site games.

Free 4* NCAA Basketball Pick: Butler +1.5

The Bulldogs come in listed as a lower seed, but a straight up underdog Thursday afternoon. While Texas played a more difficult schedule, Butler is a much more fundamentally sound team.

Butler 66, Texas 62

The 6 seed handles business Thursday afternoon en route to a small margin win.

Check out our Updated College Hoops Betting Odds.

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