{"id":27054,"date":"2013-01-01T19:45:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T00:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=27054"},"modified":"2013-01-01T19:45:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T00:45:11","slug":"ncaa-basketball-picks-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-purdue-boilermakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-basketball-picks-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-purdue-boilermakers-27054\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Basketball Picks: Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Purdue Boilermakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois Fighting Illini at Purdue Boilermakers
\nWednesday, 1\/3\/12, 8:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 Big Ten Network
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Illinois -2
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Illinois -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 137.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 137.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Illinois Fighting Illini have lost seven consecutive games to the Purdue Boilermakers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illinois bounced back from its first loss of the year in capturing an 81-79 victory over Auburn as 12.5-point neutral-site favorites Saturday, while going OVER the total in consecutive contests.\u00a0 John Groce will now try to become the Fighting Illini\u2019 third-straight rookie coach to record a win in his first Big Ten Conference game.\u00a0 \u201cHome, road, all of them are fistfights,\u201d commented Groce.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a great league.\u201d\u00a0 The program has won 11 of its last 13 league openers, including its last four.\u00a0 Illinois is 3-5 ATS as a favorite this season, which is important to consider when making your NCAA basketball picks Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini will be trying to end a seven-game skid against the Boilermakers, as nobody in their senior class has ever picked up a victory in this series.\u00a0 Illinois will also be trying to snap a seven-game conference road losing streak, which can\u2019t be ignored when looking over the college basketball betting odds.\u00a0 Offensively, the team ranks third in the NCAA in averaging 9.4 3-point field goals made per game, while pacing the nation in making 132 shots from beyond the arc overall.<\/p>\n

Purdue has won back-to-back games, including a 73-66 victory over William & Mary as 11.5-point home favorites, but has failed to cover the point spread in its last five opportunities.\u00a0 \u201cWe still have to be more consistent offensively,\u201d commented Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter.\u00a0 He has compiled a dominating 47-14 record at home versus conference opponents, while going 4-3 in league openers during his time on campus.\u00a0 Purdue is 1-7 ATS when playing a team with a winning record this year.<\/p>\n

The Boilermakers rank second in the Big Ten in three-point field goal percentage defense, which is an important statistic to handicap in this high-profile matchup.\u00a0 Purdue is also second in averaging 14.4 offensive rebounds per game, which has allowed the team to outscore opponents by a count of 145-82 on second chances this season.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Boilermakers due to the underdog being 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois Fighting Illini at Purdue Boilermakers Wednesday, 1\/3\/12, 8:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 Big Ten Network Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Illinois -2 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Illinois -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 137.5 Current Total:\u00a0 137.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Illinois bounced back from its first loss of the year in capturing an 81-79 victory over Auburn as 12.5-point neutral-site […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":26018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3442,697,7234,4019,1295],"class_list":["post-27054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-john-groce","tag-matt-painter","tag-purdue-boilermakers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27055,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27054\/revisions\/27055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}