Butler vs Seton Hall Odds, Pick for Saturday

Both the Butler Bulldogs and Seton Hall Pirates are sitting on the NCAA tournament bubble as they meet up for a huge battle at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday.

The Pirates are sitting in fourth place of the ultra-competitive Big East race, but Seton Hall’s KenPom ranking is 60th, compared to Butler’s 57th rank despite a 7-9 league mark.

Butler still has a chance to improve its seeding for the Big East tournament next month as none of its final four opponents are UConn, Marquette or Creighton.

The Bulldogs aren’t playing their best basketball of the season of late, dropping four of their last five games following a four-game winning streak. The final victory during that hot streak came at Creighton as 10-point underdogs, but Butler has gone from 6-5 in the league to 7-9.

The Bulldogs are probably fortunate to sit at 7-9 considering Creighton missed a last-second shot to win, Villanova blew an early 14-point lead in a double-overtime loss and the Bulldogs rallied late to stun Providence over the last month.

Butler has several things working in its favor going into Saturday, as it owns the best turnover percentage in Big East play at 14.1%. Also, coach Thad Matta’s team ranks second in conference action by knocking down 35.9% of its 3-point attempts and drills nearly 80% of its free-throw tries.

Leading scorer Pierre Brooks II (15.1 PPG) posted three consecutive games of 20 points or more in January but is averaging 8.1 points per game in his last seven contests. 

The Bulldogs are 3-7 against the spread in Big East play as an underdog. Breaking that number down further, Butler has covered in all three opportunities as a double-digit underdog, but is 0-7 ATS as a ‘dog of nine points or less.

Seton Hall was an early surprise in Big East play, starting 6-1 with its only loss coming in a 20-point blowout to Xavier.

The Pirates have cooled off of late by splitting the last eight games, but Seton Hall is fresh off consecutive wins over Xavier and St. John’s.

In last Sunday’s triumph over the Red Storm, Seton Hall fell in an early 19-point hole before rallying back in the second half for a 68-62 victory as 6.5-point underdogs. The Pirates won in spite of shooting 3-of-15 from 3-point range but knocked down 25 free throws.

In the last eight games in the favorite role, Seton Hall has put together a 2-6 ATS mark. Only one of those two covers came at home, which occurred 10 days ago in an 88-70 victory against Xavier.

Seton Hall defeated Butler, 78-72, in the first matchup in Indianapolis as four-point underdogs last month. The Pirates led by double digits late in the first half, but the Bulldogs came back to take a 70-68 advantage with less than four minutes remaining. However, Seton Hall pulled away by going on a 10-2 run the rest of the way, as guard Kadary Richmond scored eight of his game-high 24 points during that run.

Butler fell in an early hole in the last meeting with Seton Hall before roaring back to lead late. The Bulldogs have struggled as a single-digit underdog in Big East play, but look for Butler to cash as a short underdog Saturday.

Pick: Butler +2.5 (Play to +2)