Purdue And Illinois Might Be More Of A Battle Than Offensive Showdown

Purdue vs. Illinois, 8:00 ET

After a really long streak of pretty much nothing but basketball plays, I had a full day off of college hoops yesterday. It felt a bit strange not placing a bet on the kids as I've been doing it for months. However, I certainly need to get used to it now as we have very little time remaining in the year for college basketball. Either way, we return tonight and look at another Big 10 matchup in a conference that has been pretty good to us with Purdue and Illinois battling each other tonight.

Purdue comes into tonight's contest as the 18th ranked team in the nation. While this doesn't matter anywhere in the realm of things that are actually relevant to rankings or performance, I do think we should give a bit of kudos to a team that lost their best offensive player and defensive anchor to the NBA. To me, it isn't just that Zach Edey went away, I am most impressed by the fact that the team was able to turn around a season and readjust their entire offense and defensive strategy after he left. Sure there were games without him, and there were times when he wasn't on the floor, but to be 21-9 in the next season, it is pretty impressive. Purdue is doing fairly well in the Big 10, but I would be a bit surprised to see them win the Conference Tournament. They are just 13-6, three games back of Michigan State. This last stretch of the season was by far the toughest for them as they lost four games in a row, including three to ranked opponents, and three road games. The losses came against Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Indiana. They haven't been terrible on the road, but they also haven't been good, losing five of their 10 road games this season. 

Matt Painter lights up reporter who suggests Purdue will beat Utah State. (Credit: USA Today Sports Network)

Illinois has had one of the more wild seasons in college basketball. While they have a ton of talent (and they also lost a big piece of their offense to the NBA this past draft), things haven't been smooth sailing. There was a virus or something that broke out on the team and players missed games, or at the very least weren't at their most optimal. This was a team that was ranked early in the season, but a variety of issues caused them to not only lose their ranking but go from 12-3 on January 8th to just 19-11 right now. They've lost at home, they've lost on the road, they've even lost on neutral courts. Illinois has lost three of their past five games as well. They dropped a home game to Michigan State, then lost on the road against Wisconsin, and had a complete embarrassment against Duke as they lost by 33 points. I'm not sure something has changed, but they are playing a lot better in their past two games, beating Iowa at home, and beating Michigan on the road. They won both games by 20 points. 

So is Illinois back to being a top team? I'm not ready to anoint them in that manner quite yet. I think Purdue is a good squad, but they've certainly struggled lately. I guess I'd rather say that both of these teams are on the upswing, but I can't confidently say that despite the recent wins. Still, Purdue has certainly struggled on the road. I think Illinois is the right side, but I won't play it. Instead, I expect both teams to score somewhere in the 70's, not in the 80's. I'll back the under 159.5 tonight.

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