Butler Bulldogs vs. Duke Blue Devils Betting Odds

Opening Line: Duke -6.5 / Butler +6.5 O/U 129

Time: 9:21 PM EST Monday April 5, 2010 on CBS

In the National Title game the Duke Blue Devils host the surprising Butler Bulldogs. The Blue Devils are shooting for their 4th National Championship while Butler is looking for their 1st.

Both Duke and Butler have been winning with defense and the Bulldogs are the first team since the 1985 Villanova Wildcats to hold all their opponents in the NCAA tourney to under 60 points per game.

Duke is the favorite in this game and while this would not be a HUGE upset like Villanova over Georgetown in 1985 was, but it would be pretty big, as Duke is, well Duke, and Butler is a school that is not from a big conference.

This season Duke is 23-12-2 ATS and Butler is 17-20 ATS.

In their Final 4 wins Butler beat Michigan State 52-50 in a game where they shot horribly and Duke crushed West Virginia 78-57.

Butler comes into the final with some possible problems, as solid shooting G Shelvin Mack (14.2 ppg) left Saturday's game with dehydration issues and C Matt Howard (11.6 ppg) left with a minor concussion. Both should play in this game and they will need to be 100% for Butler to pull off the upset.

As stated before Butler has a solid defense and they needed that D in their win over Michigan State since they only shot a FG% of 30.6%. The Bulldogs forced the Spartans into 16 turnovers in the semifinals and outscored MSU 20-2 off turnovers. The Bulldogs were great in getting back on defense, as the Spartans did not have any fast break points in the game.

G/F Gordon Hayward was solid in the win over MSU going for 19 points and pulling down 9 rebounds. He will be counted on for both scoring and rebounding in the finals.

Duke relies on the 3 players of guards Jon Scheyer (18.3 ppg) and Nolan Smith (17.5 ppg) and F Kyle Singler (17.6 ppg) for most of their offense. These 3 scored 63 of Duke's 78 points in their win over West Virginia. Butler will have to really key on these guys and not let this trio combine for a ton of offense. Duke hit 12 of their 23 3 point shots in the win over WVU and Butler will have to keep the Blue Devils from getting open looks from deep.

Duke has been great on the offense glass in the tournament and the Bulldogs have to keep them from getting too many 2nd chance opportunities. The Bulldogs are not a tall team and they have to body up on Duke's 7'1" C Nolan Smith and 6'10" PF Miles Plumlee. Hayward (8.3 rpg) and Howard (5.2 rpg) have to be the guys that keep Duke from dominating the glass in the game.

Betting Trends

Butler is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games, 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games following a ATS win, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 games.

Duke is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games and an Under record of 12-5 in their last 17 games.

Our Selection : Take Under 128 points.