Cleveland State vs. Butler
College Basketball Pick: Cleveland State +3.5 (January 13th 2012)
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It has certainly been an up and down season for Butler as it started the season 5-7 but ran off four straight wins before losing its last game at Detroit by 11 points this past Sunday. The Bulldogs are back home where they have a modest two-game winning streak with both of those wins coming in conference play. Overall Butler is 3-2 through five games in the Horizon League but those three wins have come by four points, four points and most recently, one point. Laying points with the Bulldogs in not a good idea now.

Cleveland St. is off to a great start at 14-3 including 4-1 in the conference. The Vikings have played their last three games at home so while hitting the road may seem like a bad spot here, since it is at Butler, they will be just fine. They catch Butler at a good time since it is in a down year and they will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak against the Bulldogs as Cleveland St. has not won since a 57-54 victory in the 2009 Horizon League Tournament Championship game.

This is a good matchup for Cleveland St. as it sends its solid defense to go against a horrible Butler offense. The Vikings are ranked first in the conference in scoring margin at +7.0 ppg, turnover margin at +4.5 tpg, steals at 9.2 spg and scoring defense at 58.0 ppg while ranking second in three-point shooting defense at 28 percent. The Vikings have held 12 of their 17 opponents to under 45-percent shooting from the floor. Butler meanwhile is averaging just 59.2 ppg at home on a mere 36.6 percent shooting.

Cleveland St. is 7-1 in true road games and it falls into a great situation where we play on road teams where the line is +3 to -3 after two straight wins by 10 points or more going up against an opponent after scoring 30 points or less in the first half in two straight games. This situation is 60-29 ATS (67.4 percent) over the last five seasons. While Butler has usually owned a great home court edge, that isn’t the case this season plus the Bulldogs are 0-7 ATS in their last seven games after playing two straight road games. 3* (845) Cleveland St. Vikings. Get more college basketball picks for January 13th 2012 from Matt Fargo at Touthouse.com.