NCAAB: #17 Creighton vs Butler Odds, and Picks (Feb 17)

• Creighton dominated Georgetown on Tuesday, winning 94-72, and surging to 18-7.
• Butler lost a close home game to Marquette, 78-72, and slid to 7-7 in Big East play.
• These teams last met two weeks ago on February 2, in a game that Butler won 99-98.

Selection Sunday is just a month away! Let’s look at the upcoming Big East clash between the Creighton Bluejays and the Butler Bulldogs. Butler is right on the bubble, and needs to take advantage of this game.

How to Watch

• FOX

Preview

Creighton traded a couple of losses two weeks ago for a couple of wins last week. They’re in contention for the Big East title still, but find themselves four games behind Marquette without many more games to play. The Bluejays are safely in the projected NCAA Tournament field, and can better their standing in both areas by splitting the season series against Butler. 7’1 C Ryan Kalkbrenner continues to lead the Bluejays.

Butler went from well off the bubble to into the projected field following their 4-game winning streak, but already finds themselves back on the cut line after going 1-2 last week. The losses came against UConn and Marquette, which hardly hurts their chances, but also doesn’t help them. They have another key chance to build their résumé in this game against Creighton, who they defeated once already this season.

Prediction

These two teams went down to the wire in their first matchup at Creighton a couple of weeks ago. This time they’ll face off at Butler, giving the Bulldogs a key advantage. That being said, season splits are far more common than season sweeps among pairs of good teams, and Butler did overcome the Bluejays own home-court advantage last time around. With all of that considered, I like Butler’s chances of winning here.

NCAAB Picks:

• Butler 75, Creighton 71 )