Butler-Florida Line has Bulldogs +3.5 Underdogs as Elite Eight Odds Released

Written by :

Dan Shapiro

Published on :

25 March, 2011

The Butler-Florida line has been released with the Bulldogs a +3.5 underdog vs. the Gators. Florida was getting heavy 80 percent action on the spread at Bookmaker.com.

Butler become the first Cinderella team to make the Elite Eight. At least one other will join the group since Florida State and Virginia Commonwealth University, two of five Cinderella teams in the Sweet 16, were playing each other late Friday night.

Butler was a number 8-seed, beating the number 2-seeded Wisconsin Badgers.

"A lot of people just ignored us and said, 'Aw, they'll probably lose in the first or second round,'" Butler center Andrew Smith said after the Bulldogs won their 12th straight game since Feb. 5. "Here we are again, trying to prove everybody wrong. We'll try to win three more."

The Bulldogs have now won 12 straight games overall. They also improved to 16-3 in the month of March under head coach Brad Stevens.

"Obviously, we're thrilled to still be playing," Stevens said after the game. "I don't think that this group goes into games not believing, and I don't think that this group came here not believing. And so we're going to see if we can't try to get one on Saturday and move on."

Florida, meanwhile, managed to knock off BYU with a final score of 83-74, however, they had to take the game into overtime.

Alex Tyus scored 19 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Kenny Boynton added 17 points.

"The thing about Alex is he never really gets fazed with the moment or with what's going on," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "One of the things I've tried to pull out of him and get him to see is that when he has a lot of activity and he's flying around the court, because of his athleticism, he's got a great ability to impact a game."

Florida earned its first win over BYU (1-3) and is 13-2 in its last 15 games overall.