While the NCAA Tournament is winding down, it is not time to say goodbye to college basketball just yet. New this season, the Crown Tournament is set to take place in Las Vegas between 16 teams that did not participate in the NCAA Tournament. The Tournament will kick off on March 31st and conclude on April 6th. This is a single-elimination style of tournament with $500,000 in NIL money on the line.
In the opening game of the Crown Tournament, Utah will be taking on Butler. The winner will play the victor of George Washington and Boise State in the following game.
Butler enters the game as a narrow 1.5-point favorite and -115 on the Moneyline. Utah holds -105 odds on the Moneyline on DraftKings Sportsbook with the game total set at 155.5.
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Utah Analysis
The Utah Utes went just 16-16 on the season and 8-12 in Big 12 play but held the 59th-ranked strength of schedule. The program elected to fire head coach Craig Smith in mid-February after four seasons at the helm and failing to reach the NCAA Tournament. Alex Jensen was hired as the new head coach on March 6th. Jensen played his college basketball at Utah before an overseason professional career and was most recently serving as an assistant coach for Saint Louis.
Jensen will have his opportunity to design the roster as he sees fit moving forward, but must lean on the current roster for the time being. The Utes rank 136th in the country in scoring and 193rd in points allowed. They rank sixth in the country in assists and 13th in rebounding but are a poor free-throw shooting team at just 63.9% as a team. This ranks 357th out of the 364 Division One teams.
Gabe Madson headlines the production with 15.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. The 6-foot-5 guard is a high-volume shooter that launches 9.2 perimeter shots per game and connects at a 32.0% rate. He will leave Utah as the program’s leading three-point shooter and ranks sixth all-time in NCAA history with 213 made three-pointers in his career. Madson can carry a team to a win when he gets hot and will be hoping to showcase this in Las Vegas. Erza Ausar is the only other player to average double-figures with 12.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Lawson Loverling and Keanu Dawes each also pitch in 8.4 and 8.0 points per game.
While the overall record isn’t impressive Utah does have some impressive wins on their resume. Out of their 16 wins, six came against Quad 1 or 2 opponents including beating BYU and Kansas. They have not played since March 11th so rust could be a factor in this game. Utah is 6-4 all-time when playing at the MGM Grand Arena from when the PAC-12 Tournament was hosted there but 1-3 all-time when facing Butler. They went 1-12 on the road this season.
Butler Analysis
It was a disappointing season for the Butler Bulldogs as they went 14-19 overall and 6-14 in Big East play. Thad Matta’s squad had a nine-game losing streak across December and January and then closed the season by losing six of their final eight games to slam the door shut on any NCAA Tournament hope. The Bulldogs rank 178th in the country in scoring and 236th in points allowed with 73.8 points per game in each category. The defense has been the biggest problem for the team, but they have done a nice job of limiting free points with opponents shooting the fifth-fewest free throw attempts. They also shoot 36.6% from beyond the three-point arc which is the 50th-best rate in the country.
Jahmyl Telfort headlines the scoring production with 16.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. Pierre Brooks also adds 15.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while Patrick McCaffrey also adds 11.3 points per game. Finley Bizjack also adds 9.5 points and connects on 41.8% of his three-point attempts.
Butler went 5-12 on the road this season and struggled against tougher competition this year. They went 1-12 against NCAA Tournament teams, with the lone win coming against Mississippi State, and 5-17 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents.
The Pick: Utah ML
The coaching change adds an interesting wrinkle to this but there is more to like about this Utah team. Butler started the season slow and finished with even greater concerns at the forefront of the conversation.
Gabe Madson is capable of carrying a team and is the type of setting in which he should shine. His perimeter attack is the most sure thing about either of these two teams’ offenses. Butler has shooters that can match, but I struggle to see a way for them to fully shut down the scrappy guard.
Expect a spark of energy to be brought on by the coaching change and for the Utes to be ready to match increased competition just as they have all season. Their record against tougher competition is notable and stands out in comparison to Butler. Expect Utah to raise the quality of play to a level that Butler cannot match in this game. Look for this to be a back-and-forth affair in the first half before Utah can pull away and produce the first Crown Tournament victory in NCAA history.
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