Butler at Connecticut 1/26/21 - College Basketball Picks & Predictions

The Butler Bulldogs travel on the road to Gampel Pavillion to take on the UConn Huskies in a Big East battle. Butler has won two in a row with an upset win at home over Creighton before going on the road to beat DePaul 67-53 to improve to 5-7 (4-5 conference). UConn has dropped two in a row, the most recent a 74-66 road loss to Creighton which dropped the Huskies to 7-3 (4-3 conference).

UConn under Dan Hurley is a defensive-minded team that plays at a methodical tempo, the difference in this team is they have an elite scorer. The Huskies are averaging 72.1 points per game ranking 184th in the country in scoring offense but are shooting just 42.3% from the field. The elite scorer is none other than sophomore James Bouknight.

Bouknight is avearging a team-high 20.3 points per game, he isn’t the most efficient player in the country but he manages to shoot 45.1% from the field but has seen his three-point shooting dip to 32.4% on over 5.5 attempts per game. Junior point guard R.J. Cole is the main distributor for the Huskies, averaging a team-high 4 assists per game and adds 10.9 points per game. 

Butler has really struggled this season offensively averaging just 63.9 points per game ranking 315th in the country in scoring offense. The Bulldogs are shooting 42.6% from the field and have really struggled from the line, making just 60.8% of their “free” ones which ranks 342nd in the country in free-throw percentage. 

Butler is a young team with a lot of new faces playing large roles, that’s not to say the senior class hasn’t been good. That class is anchored by Jair Bolden and Bryce Nze; Bolden is the teams leading scorer with 13.5 points on 39.6% shooting while Nze is the team’s leading rebounder with 8.1 per game and adds 9.8 points. The two key freshmen Chuck Harris and Myles Tate combine for 20.3 points and 5.2 assists per game and appear to keep improving. 

Butler has been better defensively but is still a very average team on that end allowing 67.4 points per game ranking 105th in the country in scoring defense. Opposing teams have shot 45.5% from the field and the Bulldogs are 56th in KenPom adjusted defense. UConn comes in giving up just over 64 points per game and is 46th in scoring defense and despite their slow tempo is 28th in KenPom adjusted defense.