The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles and the Butler Bulldogs meet in college basketball action from the Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday.
The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles will look to bounce back from an 81-74 loss to Chattanooga last time out. Jaylen Sebree leads the Golden Eagles in scoring and rebounding with 12.5 PPG along with 6.5 RPG while Brett Thompson has 12.3 PPG with 3.1 RPG and a team-high 3.6 APG to lead Tennessee Tech in assists this season. Erik Oliver has 10.6 PPG to cap off the scoring in double figures for Tennessee Tech this season. As a team, Tennessee Tech is averaging 72.4 PPG on 42.7% shooting from the field, 37.1% from behind the arc and 70.5% from the foul line this season.
The Butler Bulldogs will try to build on their 76-64 win over Kansas State last time out. Jayden Taylor leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 15.9 PPG along with 4 RPG while Chuck Harris has 13.5 PPG with 4 RPG and 3.1 APG. Manny Bates has 12.8 PPG with a team-high 7.6 RPG to lead Butler on the glass while Eric Hunter also has 12.8 PPG with 2.6 APG as well. Simas Lukosius also has 11.1 PPG with 4.6 RPG and 3.8 APG to lead the Bulldogs in assists and to cap off the scoring in double figures for Butler up to this point in the year. As a team, Butler is averaging 74 points per game on 49.6% shooting from the field, 35.1% from behind the arc and 72.2% from the foul line so far this season.
Tennessee Tech is 5-1-2 ATS in their last 8 games following a loss and 9-4 ATS in their last 13 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600 while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 road games. Butler is 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games while the over is 6-1-1 in their last 8 home games.
I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m actually leaning towards the over in this one. Not something I normally say with Butler as I’m used to this Butler team playing in low-scoring rock fights, but they’ve stepped it up offensively against lesser teams this season and Tennessee Tech, while facing a step up here, is capable of putting some points up as we’ve seen them do in spots this season and I just think we’re headed for a higher-scoring game here. Give me the over.