NCAAB Odds – Boston College Eagles vs. Purdue Boilermakers
The college basketball betting season is here for sports betting fanatics, and the Preseason NIT kicks off from Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. As a part of the festivities of one of the more illustrious preseason tournaments, the Boston College Eagles (3-1, 2-1 ATS) do battle with the Purdue Boilermakers (4-0, 2-0 ATS).
This will be the first particularly tough test for either team this season, as both teams have their sights set on the NCAA Tournament this year.
Purdue ranks #10 in this week’s AP Poll, while the Eagles will be hoping to garner some attention from the pollsters with a strong performance in the Big Apple.
After averaging 84 points per game in their first three games of the season, the Eagles ran into a stout defense in a 53-50 loss to the St. Louis Billikens. Boston College bettors expected better as 1.5-point favorites, but shot a miserable 33.3% from the field. G Corey Raji was the only real offensive highlight for the Eagles. He went 8/11 from the field and 6/8 from the foul line, totaling 22 points and seven rebounds, all on the offensive end. G Tyrese Rice had a particularly awful effort, going 1/7 from three-point land and 2/14 from the field overall.
The defense held the Billikens to 37.5% from the field. It was the best defensive effort on the young season for the Eagles, who are averaging holding teams to just 61.3 points per game.
Not to be outdone, the Purdue defense has been even more stifling. In four games this season, the Boilers have held the opposition to an average of 50.0 points per game. In its last game on Saturday, Purdue blasted Coppin State 66-46 in a game that didn’t feature a college basketball betting line.
F Robbie Hummel has been fantastic this season. He logged 20 points on 5/12 shooting against the Eagles, and has averaged a team-high 16.2 points per game on the year. He picked up his first double-double of the season with 11 boards to go with those 20 points. None of the four teams that have faced Purdue have shot better than 40% from the field, and only Eastern Michigan shot better than 35%.
Oddsmakers have installed the Boilermakers as 8.5-point neutral site favorites in this college basketball betting match-up, with the ‘total’ set at 135.
Purdue has been outstanding over the L/3 seasons, going 41-22 ATS overall and 28-13 ATS as a favorite. They’re just 4-8 ATS against ACC opponents since 1997. November games have been historically great for ‘over’ bettors for both teams. The ‘over’ is 10-4 in the L/14 games in the first month of the season for the Eagles and 13-9 in the L/22 games in the same situation for Purdue.
