The Butler Bulldogs and the Marquette Golden Eagles meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Fiserv Forum. Here’s a Marquette vs Butler prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Marquette vs Butler pick.
Butler Bulldogs Betting Preview
Butler managed a 7-1 run to start the year with wins over Missouri State, Western Michigan, SMU, Merrimack, Northwestern, Mississippi State and Eastern Illinois. It’s been losses to Houston, North Dakota State and Wisconsin since then, though.
In the Wisconsin game on Saturday, the Bulldogs were down by 14 points going into the second half. Butler hit 41 points from there but couldn’t come back in an 83-74 result. Pierre Brooks led the team on 23 points and four rebounds in the defeat.
Marquette Golden Eagles Betting Preview
Over on the Marquette side, they beat Stony Brook, George Mason, Central Michigan, Maryland, Purdue, Georgia, Stonehill and Western Carolina in their first eight. It’s been losses to Iowa State and Dayton in the last three games, though.
Matched up against the Flyers on Saturday, the Eagles held a 36-26 edge in the locker room. Marquette folded in the second half on a 45-27 run and lost 71-63, though. Tops in scoring was Chase Ross with 19 points and five boards.
Why the Marquette Golden Eagles will win
- Marquette has won 24 of its last 25 games at Fiserv Forum against non-AP-ranked opponents.
- Butler has lost 12 of its last 13 night games against Top 10 AP-ranked opponents.
- Butler has lost the first half in 13 of its last 14 road night games against Conference opponents.
Why the Butler Bulldogs will win
- The road team has won each of the last three games between Butler and Marquette.
Marquette vs Butler Prediction
I’m leaning toward Marquette. The Eagles are coming off an ugly second half in the Dayton game though, and could use a good bounce-back. Marquette ended up shooting just 40.7 percent in that one with a 38-31 rebounding deficit and 13 turnovers for 16 Flyers points. It was the first time all year that the Eagles had scored fewer than 70 points (63).
As for Butler, they didn’t play terribly against a good Wisconsin team in their latest loss—aside from the 22-of-32 (68.8 percent) from the foul line, that is. The Bulldogs have given up 71 or more points in three straight games (all losses) but to be fair two of those were against ranked teams. This is looking like a pretty fun matchup overall, and I like Marquette to power out the cover at home.