Purdue vs Fairleigh Dickinson Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 3/17/23

The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights and the Purdue Boilermakers meet in an NCAA Tournament First Round matchup in college basketball action from the Nationwide Arena on Friday.

Fairleigh Dickinson Knights Team Preview

The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights punched their ticket to this matchup after an 84-61 win over Texas Southern in their first four matchup. All five starters scored in double figures for FDU, with Ansley Almonor leading the way with 23 points including 5 threes and a team-high 8 rebounds while Joe Munden Jr. had 17 points and Demetre Roberts had 15 points with 4 assists. Grant Singleton had 13 points with 7 rebounds and a team-high 6 assists while Sean Moore had 10 points on a perfect 4 for 4 shooting to cap off the scoring in double figures in the win for the Knights.

Purdue Boilermakers Team Preview

The Purdue Boilermakers come in as the 1-seed in the region after going 29-5 overall including 15-5 in Big Ten conference play, earning the regular season championship and taking out Rutgers, Ohio State and Penn State to win the Big East conference tournament title. Zach Edey leads the Boilermakers in scoring and rebounding with 22.3 PPG and 12.8 RPG to average a double-double per game while Fletcher Loyer has 10.9 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Purdue so far this season. Braden Smith also has 9.8 PPG and a team-high 4.3 APG to lead the Boilermakers in assists up to this point in the season. As a team, Purdue is averaging 73.1 PPG on 45.9% shooting from the field, 32.8% from three and 74.3% from the foul line this season.

Trends

Fairleigh Dickinson is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 3-10 ATS in their last 13 neutral site games while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall. Purdue is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 0-7 ATS in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 Friday games.

Pick

I’m sticking with Purdue here. I know it’s a big number and Purdue hasn’t been a great cover team this season, but I just think this one shakes out like a true 1 vs. 16 game, and FDU has no answers inside for Zach Edey. I look for Purdue to control this game from the opening tip and to pull away and win this one by 25+. Give me the Boilermakers here.