Last Bracket Buster Prediction for the Night.
Butler (86 RPI) 10-4 Horizon, 17-9 overall. Kent State (97 RPI) 12-2 MAC, 18-7 overall.
Butler is 7-5 vs. non conference opponents. Lost to UNC Wilmington (45 RPI), #17 Ohio State (8 RPI) and Michigan (30 RPI), beat Bradley (RPI 63) and split with UW Milwaukee (RPI 41). Butler is first in the Horizon in scoring defense at 59.9 per game and first in 3 point FG percentage defense at 30.2%. Tied with UW Milwaukee in scoring margin at +8.3. First in the Horizon in FG percentage at 46.3%. Butler does struggle on the boards, getting outrebounded on average by 7 rebounds a game. Butler is led by Brandon Polk who averages 17.7 points per game. AJ Graves chips in with 13.5 points per game and Bruce Horan averages 11 points per game and 94 percent from the free throw line.
Kent State 6-5 vs. non conference opponents. Lost to Rutgers, Southern Illinois and Syracuse. Quality wins, one vs Akron (68 RPI). Kent State second in scoring offense in the MAC at 71.9 points per game and second in scoring margin behind Akron. Kent State is in the middle of the conference in most statistical categories except first in three point field goal defense percentage at 32.2%. Kent State is led by Jay Youngblood (14.4 points per game), DeAndre Haynes (12.5 points per game) and Kevin Warzynski (10.2 points per game), all seniors.
Prediction - I love a team that plays good defense and and shoots the ball well despite not being a high scoring team. Butler does both. Couple that with the fact that Kent State has only one win vs a team with a RPI under 100, Akron, who was smoked by Nevada by 27 tonight, that does not bode well for Kent State. As long as Butler doesn't allow too many second chances with Kent State's rebounding advantage, they should be fine. Even though Kent State is at home, I like Butler to win in a relatively low scoring game 64-59.
Tomorrow, I will give short predictions of the other seven bracket buster games.
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