Purdue vs Indiana Prediction 2/20/26 College Basketball Picks Today

The Indiana Hoosiers and the Purdue Boilermakers meet Friday in college basketball action from Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Here’s a Purdue vs Indiana prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Purdue vs Indiana pick.

Indiana Hoosiers Betting Preview

The Hoosiers posted a nice 12-3 run over their first 15 outings this year. Indiana lost to only Minnesota, Louisville and Kentucky in that time. The Hoosiers would then fall against Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa and Michigan ahead of wins against Rutgers, Purdue and UCLA after that. After losing to USC, Indiana took out Wisconsin and Oregon before another loss to Illinois.

In the Illinois game on Sunday the Hoosiers were coming off the floor in the first half with a 38-31 deficit. Indiana couldn’t get any closer than that in the end, riding a 33-20 deficit on the way to a 71-51 loss on the road. Lamar Wilkerson led the team on his 21 points with three boards and Tucker DeVries added 13 points with two rebounds and one assist in 35 minutes of action on the court.

Purdue Boilermakers Betting Preview

Over on the Purdue side, they only lost one of their first 18 games this year. That defeat came courtesy of Iowa State on December 6. After losses to UCLA, Illinois and Indiana in the next three, the Boilermakers beat Maryland, Oregon, Nebraska and Iowa in succession. Over the first 25 games of the year that would give Purdue a 21-4 overall record in the books for their troubles.

Matched up against Michigan on Tuesday the Boilermakers were already down by 16 points at the break 48-32. Purdue got better in the second half on a 48-43 advantage but eventually still fell by double-digits on their own home court 91-80 in the end. Trey Kaufman-Renn led the charge on 27 points with 12 rebounds and Braden Smith added 20 points with six assists and one rebound in the defeat.

Why the Purdue Boilermakers will win

• Purdue has won each of its last 36 games as a top-10 AP-ranked team against a non-AP-ranked team at Mackey Arena.
• Indiana has lost each of its last 11 games against Top 10 AP-ranked opponents.
• Purdue has won the first half in 12 of its last 13 February home games as an AP-ranked team against a non-AP-ranked team.

Why the Indiana Hoosiers will win

• The road team has won four of Purdue’s last five games.
• Purdue has lost each of its last three games as a top-10 AP-ranked team.
• The road team has won the first half in four of Purdue’s last five games.

Purdue vs Indiana Prediction

I’ll lean toward Purdue. The Boilermakers weren’t able to keep pace with a very good Michigan team in a home game this week, shooting just 39.1 percent from the field while giving up 52.6 percent shooting on defense. The 36-28 rebounding deficit didn’t help matters, but Purdue did some good things in the loss like hitting 90 percent (18-of-20) from the line. The Boilermakers are still 4-1 in their last five games and they’ve scored 78 or more points in four of those five as well.

Back on January 27, these teams met up at Bloomington Assembly Hall. The Boilermakers ended up falling in that one 72-67. Purdue shot well (48.1 percent) from the field with a 32-26 edge on the boards but did miss a few free throws (8-of-15 for 53.3 percent) and gave up 46 percent shooting on defense. Indiana hit 12 shots from 3-point range (out of 33 for 36.4 percent) to Purdue’s 35 percent (7-of-20) which gave the Hoosiers just enough of a cushion for the victory. I like the Boilermakers to get some revenge in the home rematch, though.