Historically, the best early round March Madness matchups are between middle-seeded teams… those eights vs. nines, sevens vs. 10's…you get the idea. These seeds often match powerful mid-major programs against teams from power leagues that got one of the at-large bids or even bubble teams. A great Thursday matchup falling into this category will be in the South Regional played between the eight-seed LSU Tigers (SEC) and nine-seed Butler Bulldogs (Horizon).
The early online betting line at Sportsbook.com has LSU favored by 2.5-points while total's and moneyline odds are currently OFF board.
A novice gambler will probably look at this game and see a friendly line matching a power team vs. a mid-major. A sharp will see the opposite. Butler is traditionally one of the nations best mid-major programs that plays toe-to-toe with the nations elite basketball schools. While the SEC is one of the premier conference's, it did not measure up to other power leagues as the BIG EAST, ACC, BIG TEN or BIG 12. The SEC often provides six or seven programs to the NCAA Tournament, only got three teams into the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
If you are looking for a solid value bet, do not look beyond the Butler Bulldogs getting +2.5 points.
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