Defending national champion UConn has definitely looked the part this season as the No. 1 Huskies look to try and expand their lead atop the Big East on Tuesday when they host NCAA Tournament bubble team Butler with UConn as a heavy favorite on the NCAAB odds. 2024 NCAA Basketball Betting & Expert Analysis Butler vs #1 UConn | MyBookie Sportsbook Week 14 NCAAB

How to Bet Butler at UConn NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info

When: Tuesday, 8:30 PM ET
Where: XL Center, Hartford
TV: Fox Sports 1
Stream: Fox Sports Live
Radio: Tunein.com
Opening NCAAB Lines: UConn -14 (total 147.5)

Butler vs UConn First Meeting

On Jan. 5, UConn won at Butler 88-81 while playing without injured All-American center Donovan Clingan, who is back now. The Huskies trailed 42-35 at halftime but shot 55% from the field overall in front of a sellout crowd on the road. Freshman guard Stephon Castle finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. Cam Spencer also scored 14, including a critical 3-pointer that made it 83-76 with 48.1 seconds left. DJ Davis had 22 points, Pierre Brooks II scored 19 and Jamyl Telfort added 16 for the Bulldogs, who shot 47% and were outrebounded 33-24. Connecticut improved to 8-0 in the all-time series, which began with a meeting in the 2011 NCAA championship game.

Why Bet on Butler Bulldogs?

Butler (15-7, 6-5 Big East) won its fourth in a row last Friday, a 99-98 upset at No. 13 Creighton. The Bluejays were hot in the first half and led by four at the break, but the shooting fortunes turned in the second half as Butler connected on 62.5 percent of its shots (20-of-32), while Creighton converted 15-of-31 (48.4%).

The result was a battle that saw neither team lead by more than five in the second half as the squads seemed to match one another shot for shot. Butler would score on 25-of-35 second half possessions, becoming just the second CU conference opponent to score more than 95 points in regulation in Omaha since 1989.

Down the stretch the Bluejays climbed within one point four different times in the final 2:11, but were unable to get over the hump. The Bulldogs committed two turnovers in the final 35 seconds and missed a free throw, but CU missed its final four shots from the floor, all of which would have tied the game. Creighton’s 33 game home win streak on Fridays was snapped as CU suffered its first such loss since Dec. 12, 1975.

Butler’s Landon Moore was able to bat away an attempted lob at the rim with 0.5 seconds remaining to close out the win for Butler. The defensive play capped the only Big East game since at least 2011 where both teams scored 95 points in regulation. Jahmyl Telfort led Butler with 26 points on 12-for-17 shooting, which matched his season-high.

DJ Davis made eight of his 12 attempts and finished with 22 points. Davis made all three of his free throw attempts Friday night. He is now the national leader in free throw percentage at 95.9 percent. Davis is 37-for-38 from the line in Big East play.

Freshman Finley Bizjack scored 11 points, his second-best scoring output of the season. Classmate Kapke added eight, including the final two free throws of the game for Butler in place of Davis, who was hit in the eye and had to leave the game with six seconds to play. Butler had a 25-4 advantage in bench points.

Butler played without guard Posh Alexander, who has been dealing with a foot injury. Moore made the first start of his Butler career and it was the first change in Butler’s starting lineup this season. It was Butler’s second true road win of the season over a Top 15 opponent after also defeating No. 11 Marquette in Milwaukee Jan. 10.

The Bulldogs have eclipsed their win total from last season with nine regular season games remaining on the schedule. Butler’s four-game Big East winning streak is the program’s first since Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2018 and the fifth such streak since joining the league prior to the 2013-14 season.

The 277 combined points scored by Butler over its last three games are the most for the Bulldogs in a three-game stretch of conference games since joining the Big East. The Bulldogs are 13-0 on the season when shooting better from the field than their opponent. Butler has out-rebounded three of its last four opponents and is 12-0 this season when winning the glass.

Why Bet on UConn Huskies?

UConn (20-2, 10-1 Big East) won its 10th straight game on Saturday, 77-64 at St. John’s, which led by a point at halftime. It remained a one-possession game through the opening seven minutes of the second half. A Chris Ledlum fastbreak dunk put the Red Storm ahead 46-45 at 13:16, but that proved to be St. John’s last lead of the game.

The Huskies responded with the next eight points and saw their lead grow as large as 15 down the stretch. Cam Spencer scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and shot 5-for-7 from 3-point territory. Connecticut capitalized at the free-throw line with Spencer, Stephon Castle and Tristen Newton going 15-for-16 from the line in the second half. Castle finished with 21 points, shooting 7-for-12 from the field. Newton chipped in 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Huskies. UConn shot 90.9 percent (20-22 FT) from the free-throw line.

Castle’s 20-point effort was his second in as many games – the first two such contests of the freshman’s career. He was named the Big East Freshman of the Week for the fifth time in six weeks and sixth time this season, the league announced on Monday. Castle is averaging 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists on the season, all tops amongst Big East freshmen.

UConn had a pair of 20-point scorers in Castle and Spencer for the second time this season, previously occurring on Jan. 14 vs. Georgetown. Newton has recorded back-to-back double-doubles and now has six this season. The All-American candidate continues to lead the Huskies in every major offensive category at 15.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. The Huskies are now 46-9 all-time when playing as the No. 1 team.

The win for UConn came despite missing starter and third-leading scorer Alex Karaban (14.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg), who missed the contest with an ankle injury. A game-time decision, Karaban was ruled out before tipoff. He got hurt early in last Wednesday’s win over Providence when he came down awkwardly after making a driving layup. He’s questionable for Tuesday. Connecticut was still dominant on the glass, out-rebounding St. John’s 38-23.

“All things considered,” Coach Dan Hurley noted, “I probably didn’t imagine we could play as well and as tough as we did without Alex.. You have a big player out of the game, you start making excuses: ‘It’s OK to lose’ … hell no. We came here to win.”

The Huskies currently lead the Big East in both scoring offense and defense and both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense.

Butler vs UConn Expert Prediction

UConn 78, Butler 67

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