Bill Marzano
Illinois-Chicago at Butler
Pick: Butler -13
I really like the Butler Bulldogs in this game vs Ill-Chi...Butler has owned this series and have won 7 of the L8 games ATS vs Ill-Chi...the favorite is 14-3-1 ATS in the last 18 meetings...12-5 ATS in their last 17 games as a home favorite of 13.0 or greater..the Flames are 0-4 ATS in the last 4 meetings in Butler...2-8 ATS in their last 10 games following a ATS win...Butler is the play here.
Illinois-Chicago at Butler
Pick: Butler -13
I really like the Butler Bulldogs in this game vs Ill-Chi...Butler has owned this series and have won 7 of the L8 games ATS vs Ill-Chi...the favorite is 14-3-1 ATS in the last 18 meetings...12-5 ATS in their last 17 games as a home favorite of 13.0 or greater..the Flames are 0-4 ATS in the last 4 meetings in Butler...2-8 ATS in their last 10 games following a ATS win...Butler is the play here.
Just gotta look my man, there's only 3 pages so far.
B. Lang:
5-Dime Villanova- Hands down, the Wildcats are the hottest team in arguably the bestconference in college basketball. That's no joke, as the Wildcats rollin after a pair of blowout win over tenth-ranked Marquette and23rd-ranked Syracuse, scoring an NBA-like 102 points in both games andwinning those contests by 18 and 17 points, respectively. And duringthis current six-game win streak, Jay Wright's boys have also defeatedfourth-ranked Pittsburgh by 10 points.
While everyone is impressed by Connecticut, which to its defense beatNova by six points back on Jan. 21, I am more impressed with Villanova's strength - balance and versatility. These Wildcats go eightto 10 players deep, so while they may be without 6-foot-6 startingforward Dwayne Anderson, there are plenty of players for Wright tochoose from when rotating his lineup.
These two actually match up quite the same with Wright's usual lineup,but the 'Cats can bring some size off the bench to dwarf Bobby Huggins'boys, something that has been the Mountaineers' downfall this season,because they cannot employ the defensive tempo he like to own from theopening tip.
I don't the Mounties will be able to shoot the ball well, so I'll play the road team here.
