Butler at Southern Illinois

It's been tough to go against S. Illinois on their court, but this is not the same type of team that has built that huge home-court advantage. The Sulukis have been a very good team since the 00-01 season, having lost only three times at home during this stretch. This team is more like that 00-01 team (before the good run), that finished 16-13. The Sulukis have fewer wins than any MVC team at this point, and lost by double-digits at home already this year to Indiana. It was the first time they lost that bad since Creighton beat them back in 00-01 by 14. That team went on to lose seven games at home and three by double digits, and this team will likely lose more than the three games they have lost at home over the last seven years. Butler is for real as we saw last year, and they have everyone back. They are even better than last year's squad. They seem to struggle against Wright State but beat everyone else, as they are off to an 11-1 start. It's the wrong year for the Sulukis to get a very talented, and experienced Butler team on the road. Butler plays awesome defense, holding foes to 57 ppg. But S. Illinois is scoring 74.5 per game at home while allowing 66.5. Games with a total set at under 120, featuring a team off a road win have gone OVER 70% of the time (49-21) over the past ten years. In games with a total under 120, Butler is 11-3 OVER the past three seasons. We'll take Butler and the OVER here.