Northwestern Wildcats vs Purdue Boilermakers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/12/26

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The Northwestern Wildcats and the Purdue Boilermakers will meet in Chicago for day three of the Big 10 Tournament. This will be game three for the Wildcats already as they played Penn State on Tuesday night to start their postseason run. Purdue is just the #7 seed in the tournament despite being the preseason #1 team in the country. They have not looked like a national championship contender most people expected, but they are still a great team that could make a run in this league tournament. The Boilermakers are -10.5 and that is my best bet of the game.

I like Purdue to bounce back from their loss to Wisconsin on Saturday and make a statement here. The Boilermakers are 6-4 over their last 10 games but are still ranked #8 nationally at Bart Torvik throughout that span. They have one of the best offenses in college basketball that I believe will allow them to cover this spread. Since February 1^st, Purdue is ranked #1 in adjusted offensive efficiency, #37 in effective field goal percentage, #34 in offensive rebounding percentage and #30 in three-point percentage at Bart Torvik. Northwestern’s not a good rebounding team and their three-point defense has not been good recently, so I expect Purdue to expose them there. The Wildcat’s defense is ranked just #287 in effective field goal percentage, #359 in offensive rebouncing percentage and #298 in three-point defense since February 1^st. I do not see their defense being good enough in their third game in three days, so take TCU here.

Northwestern vs Purdue: Purdue Boilermakers -10.5 available at time of publishing. Playable to -11.