{"id":6497,"date":"2008-12-30T18:18:54","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T23:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=6497"},"modified":"2008-12-30T18:18:54","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T23:18:54","slug":"illini-boilermakers-handicapping-pick-301208","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/ncaa-basketball\/illini-boilermakers-handicapping-pick-301208\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAAB Handicapping: Illinois vs. Purdue (Dec. 30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Illinois @ Purdue<\/h2>\n

Illinois is undergoing a revitalization of its program under Bruce Weber this year, and it’s no wonder, with much-improved guard play. The Illini has tallied almost 20 assists per game, and the ball movement which has been so successful in Weber’s motion offense has resulted in 49% shooting accuracy. \u00a0<\/p>\n

BetUS NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Odds<\/strong>: PURDUE -7<\/p>\n

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

* ILL has won its last six games SU
\n* ILL has covered six of its last nine games
\n* ILL has played four of its last five games UNDER the total
\n* ILL has won six of its last seven road games SU
\n* ILL has covered four of its last five road games
\n* ILL has played six of its last nine road games UNDER the total
\n* PUR has won its last six games SU
\n* PUR has won its last five home games SU<\/p>\n

Also…<\/strong><\/p>\n

* PUR has covered four of the last five meetings
\n* Four of the last five meetings have gone OVER the total
\n* PUR is 5-1-1 ATS in the last seven meetings as the home team\"\"<\/a>
\n* ILL has had the shooting edge in five of the last six meetings
\n* PUR has made more three-pointers in each of the last five meetings<\/p>\n

One would normally expect that Chris Kramer, Purdue’s defensive ace who was voted the best stopper in the conference last year, would glue himself to Demetri McCarney, Illinois’ explosive sophomore guard who scored 18 points in the “Bragging Rights Game” against Missouri. But Weber puts three guards on the floor, and one of those guards is going to be Trent Meacham, who is developing into one of the top three-point threats in the country (50%).<\/p>\n

A lot may depend on how Illinois’ big people can contribute on offense. Word on that is encouraging. Mike Tisdale, the seven-foot center, tied his career-high with 25 points against Eastern Michigan on Sunday. If Mike Davis, whose offense has been up-and-down, can come through as well, that is a considerable bulwark against Purdue which does not possess a lot of useful size.<\/p>\n

We understand that Missouri may turn out to be a bunch of “paper” tigers, and that is Illinois’ best win thus far. But there is no mistaking the improvement down in Champaign. Purdue has struggled a bit shooting the basketball (44.6%), and there is quite a bit more balance in this opponent than in Davidson, the team against whom they got some “redemption” ten days ago. After being swept in the regular season, Illinois demonstrated some progress by beating Purdue in the Big Ten tournament, That continues here.<\/p>\n

We’ll take the points with the Illini, the seven-point underdog in the BetUS NCAA college basketball sports betting odds.<\/p>\n

Our PLAY: ILLINOIS +7 **<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Illinois Fighting Illini and the Purdue Boilermakers will both be gunning for a victory on Tuesday when they meet at Mackey Arena, we preview and pick the winner of this hoops matchup tonight…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[4207,4212,4631,7557,2954,7556,7558,4787,4785,4788,4210,4786,2963],"class_list":["post-6497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-handicapping","tag-college-basketball-odds","tag-fighting-illini-vs-boilermakers","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-purdue-boilermakers","tag-illinois-vs-purdue","tag-ncaa-basketball-free-picks","tag-ncaa-basketball-futures","tag-ncaa-basketball-handicappers","tag-ncaa-basketball-lines","tag-ncaa-basketball-wagering","tag-purdue-boilermakers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6499,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6497\/revisions\/6499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}