DePaul Blue Demons (3-14) vs. Butler Bulldogs (11-7)
January 20, 2024 4:00 pm EDT
The Line: Butler Bulldogs -16 ; Over/Under: -
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The DePaul Blue Demons and the Butler Bulldogs meet Saturday in college basketball action from Hinkle Fieldhouse. DePaul last played Wednesday versus Providence. In that one the Blue Demons dropped to 3-14 overall with a blowout loss. As for Butler, they’re sitting at 11-7 on the year after a loss to Xavier back on Tuesday. Let’s get into our DePaul vs. Butler prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
DePaul Blue Demons
The Blue Demons have had a pretty rough year so far, beating only South Dakota, Louisville and Chicago State in their first 12 games. After that came consecutive losses to UConn, Georgetown, Creighton and Villanova over the next quartet to drop DePaul to 3-13 through 16 outings.
On Wednesday versus Providence, the Blue Demons went into the second half trailing 47-31. DePaul didn’t get any closer on a 53-31 second half and limped toward a 100-62 defeat. Leading team scorer Elijah Fisher was the only one in double-figures with 19 points and five rebounds.
Butler Bulldogs
Over on the Bulldogs’ side, they had a nice 10-2 run over their first dozen games with losses to only Michigan State and Florida Atlantic. Butler hit a 1-5 stretch over the next six games though, falling to Providence, St. John’s, UConn, Seton Hall and Xavier with a lone win over Marquette.
Matched up against Xavier on Tuesday, the Bulldogs were outscored 46-32 by halftime. Butler kept the pace from there on a 39-39 run and ended up falling 85-71. Leading the team in the losing effort was Pierre Brooks with his 22 points, four assists and three rebounds in 37 minutes of work.
ANDREW’S FREE DEPAUL VS BUTLER PREDICTION
I’ll stay with Butler. Probably not touching this one, though; the Bulldogs are struggling right now. Butler shot a tepid 35.3 percent from the field with a 43-35 rebounding deficit in their latest loss to Xavier, but did manage 17 team assists and had just six turnovers. That said, the Bulldogs are giving up quite a bit of offense these days: 78 or more points in five of the last six games.
As for DePaul, they’ve failed to reach 70 points in all five games during this current losing streak. The Blue Demons have also given up 84 or more points in three straight games, so Butler shouldn’t have too many issues finding points in this one.
