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The ACC-Big Ten Challenge will bring us another great matchup between ranked teams when the No. 19 Louisville Cardinals and the No. 18 Purdue Boilermakers meet on Tuesday night. Louisville has shaken off the aftermath of the last Rick Pitino scandal as best it could and it looks like a weight has been lifted off some of the players’ shoulders. As for Purdue, the Boilermakers are looking to shrug off their poor performance at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
This war on the floor will go down Tuesday, November 28, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. The game will be televised live on ESPN. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Tuesday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Louisville will be facing its first real test when it takes on the Boilermakers in this one. The Cardinals are 4-0, but have a relatively easy run of things in non-conference play. Louisville has defeated every one of its opponents by at least nine points, but is just 1-2 ATS because the Cardinals were a double-digit favorite in each game.
The Boilermakers looked very sharp to start the season, getting out to a 4-0 SU and 3-0 ATS mark including a win over Marquette. However, things changed dramatically when the Boilermakers went to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. Purdue lost to Tennessee and Western Kentucky in consecutive days, and the loss against the Hilltoppers looks really bad as the Boilermakers were a 19-point favorite in that one.
Purdue did rally on Black Friday, hammering Arizona 89-64 to give them at least one nice non-conference win. Every one of their games at the tournament went over the total so keep that in mind here.
Last Meeting
These two teams met last season in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in a game that Louisville led the whole way. The Cardinals raced out to a 33-19 halftime leave with their suffocating defense playing a big role. Louisville constantly swarmed the ball with its deep rotation and forced 17 Purdue turnovers on the evening. The great Caleb Swanigan wasn’t even immune turning the ball over six times himself in the loss.
As a whole, the Boilermakers shot just 35.8 percent from the floor. Carsen Edwards, this season’s leading scorer thus far, only hit 4 of 15 field goals, and Vince Edwards and Isaac Haas combined to go just 2-13 from the floor. Most of that Louisville team is back this year and it will be looking to wreak havoc on Purdue’s offense once again.
Coaching Angle
Cardinals fans seem pretty happy with David Padgett and he might end up landing the job permanently when it’s all said and done with. Padgett is only 32 years old and was brought on mainly for his recruiting prowess, but he is a likeable figure and the team has responded to him well. His ability to handle the media has kept this season from spiraling out of control and he has successfully put the focus back on the play on the floor.
Padgett is not just one of the youngest coaches in college basketball, but one of the tallest too. At 6’11, he is able to command the room with his presence and that has helped calm things down too. Many of the assistant coaches tied to the program left too which made his job even more difficult.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Both teams will have had three days of rest before this game and that’s especially good news for the Boilermakers after playing three games in three days.
Expect to see Purdue as a moderate favorite in this game even though it might not be ranked by the time the game rolls around. Mackey Arena is a tough place to play in, and the Boilermakers are a known quantity, while the Cardinals are still unproven. That being said, I like Louisville to get the cover in a very close game.
College Basketball Odds: Purdue 68, Louisville 66
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