Purdue Boilermakers vs Nebraska Cornhuskers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/13/26

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The top seeds finally get involved in the Big Ten tournament on Friday, as the Nebraska Cornhuskers enter the mix to face the Purdue Boilermakers. The Boilers dispatched Northwestern on Thursday with relative ease, but the home stretch of their regular season was anything but pretty. They lost 3 of their last 4, including 2 at home. They beat the Huskers in overtime a few weeks ago (more on that game below), but this will probably be a battle. I think people nationwide still fail to realize just how good this Nebraska team is, and there is a reason it is the #2 seed. Catching 4 points in this spot? That’s a definite play for me.

These teams profile very similarly — good offense, good defense, they both score inside the arc well, and neither gets to the line often, nor sends the opponent there often. The difference in the profile is that Nebraska both takes a ton of 3s and also defends the arc well, while Purdue allows a lot of 3s and does not defend them very well. The reason that didn’t add up to a win for Nebraska in the regular season is because it got out-rebounded 52 to 33, including 20 to 4 on the offensive glass. Nobody wins basketball games like that at any level. Even if Purdue is qualitatively better on the boards, getting dominated that heavily is just an effort issue. Nebraska should close that gap on the glass, and this game will swing the other way.

All season, Purdue has been something of a “pretty boy” team — it dominates bad teams, but once it faces an equal it gets exposed. I expect the same thing here. The Boilermakers are also a bad cover team, sitting at just 13-18 against the spread on the season. Nebraska can and will hang with Purdue and could very well win outright. Let’s take the points.

Purdue vs Nebraska prediction: Nebraska +4 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable to +2.5.