NCAA Hoops - Wright State Raiders at Butler Bulldogs

BetUS NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Odds:  BUTLER -10.5

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* WST has won its last six games SU

* WST has covered seven of its last eight games

* WST has played five of its last six games UNDER the total

* WST has covered its last four road games

* WST has played four of its last six road games UNDER the total

* BUT has won 17 of its last 19 games SU

* BUT has covered four of its last five games

* BUT has played five of its last six games OVER the total

* BUT has won its last nine home games SU

Also...

* WST has won nine of the last 12 meetings SU

* WST has covered ten of the last 12 meetings

* BUT has won four of the last six meetings SU as the home team

* WST has covered six of the last eight meetings as the road team

* WST has had the shooting edge in eight of the last nine meetings

* WST has had the rebounding edge in eight of the last nine meetings

* BUT has made more three-pointers in five of the last seven meetings

Wright State got off to an 0-6 start and was essentially left for dead. The Raiders had lost their most reliable scorer, Vaughn Duggins, after four games when he broke a finger on his shooting hand. Duggins, who was the team's leading scorer last season, was not just Wright State's best player, he was one of the top performers in the Horizon League, and he was almost impossible for them to replace. On top of that, Todd Brown, who averaged in double digits last year, was not having a particularly productive season for coach Brad Brownell (6.7 ppg).

Somewhere along the line, something happened to wake this program up. Cory Cooperwood, a 6'7" junior college transfer, provided a string inside presence. The Raiders started to play better defense. They have been able to stretch out their bench, with ten players averaging at least ten minutes per game. Brown has now averaged over 12 points in his last four contests, which doesn't sound like a lot until you consider Wright State is a team that slows things down to a snail's pace, with its games averaging only 115 points - on both sides.

The result is a six-game winning streak, which has included victories over Oral Roberts and Cleveland State. Not that there haven't been some nail-biters; last time out WSU got to the line 23 times, including two from Brown with 33 seconds left, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to rally for a 60-59 win over Youngstown State.

The news that is potentially even better is that Duggins has had pins taken out of his hand and could actually be back in action tonight; that is, unless he decides to go after a medical redshirt.

This is a very good time for Wright State to be getting hot, because Butler is its most heated rival, to the point where four busloads of fans with "Beat Butler" T-shirts will be making the trek from Toledo to Indianapolis for this one. the interesting thing is that the same passion does not exist on the part of Butler toward Wright State, which can provide us with an edge.