Northwestern Wildcats (20-12) vs Purdue Boilermakers (26-4)Big Ten Tournament Conseco Fieldhouse Indianapolis, INCollege Basketball: Friday March 12, 2010 6:30 PM ESTThe Line: Purdue -8
The Purdue Boilermakers and Northwestern Wildcats clash as day two of the Big Ten Tournament continues. Purdue takes to the court for the first time this post season as the Boilers got a first round bye due to their stellar regular season performance. Purdue finished at number five in the national polls and tied for first place in the Big Ten going 14-4 in conference play. The Boilermakers went 7-2 on the road this season and 4-0 in neutral site games. Purdue will be without Robbie Hummel the rest of the way but they still have plenty of fire power as E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson are two of the best in nation. The Boilermakers averaged 72.1 points per game and shot 45.5 percent from the floor though the struggled on the offensive boards ranking 246th in the country. Defensively Purdue is tough as nails as they hold teams to a stingy 40.2 percent shooting and a mere 60.6 points per game which ranks them 23rd in the nation. The loss of Hummel hurts but this is still a very good and solid basketball team. Northwestern trailed early against Indiana in their first round game but came back and blew the Hoosiers out of the gym to earn their spot in this game. It's been an up and down year for Northwestern who looked at one point like they had a solid chance of going to their first NCAA Tournament in school history but a series of bad losses to lower rung team all but ended those dreams. The Cats went just 7-11 in conference play this year including an eight point loss to this same Purdue team. Northwestern scores 69.6 points per game while shooting 43.6 percent form the floor as they are hurt by their 3-2nd ranked offensive rebounding. Defensively The Wildcats allow 65.4 points per game as teams shoot 42.3 percent from the field. Anything less than an epic run in this tournament will more than likely mean a trip to the NIT. Purdue is 0-5 against the spread in their last five Big Ten games and 1-3-1 against the spread in their last five neutral site games. Northwestern is 6-1 against the spread in their last seven neutral site games and 13-3 against the spread in their last 16 games against a team with a wining record. The favorite has covered seven of the last 10 times these two have met. Northwestern had some chances against lesser teams down the stretch and couldn't take advantage of them, against the better teams they were a mess. Mitch's Pick: Purdue - 8 Check out all of our Free College Basketball Picks Against The Spread for 3/12/10
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