Illinois vs Purdue Prediction & Picks - NCAA Men

Prediction published on 3/7/25, 4:35 PM  by Bill Christy in NCAA Men Picks

The 19-11 Illinois Fighting Illini were on a 3-game losing streak before winning their last 2 games. That said, those 3 losses all came to top tier opponents. #10 Michigan State, #11 Wisconsin, and #3 Duke accounted for those 3 losses. They then defeated a weak Iowa team before upsetting #15 Michigan on the road by 20 in their last game. The Illini are finally healthy and are looking to make a serious run in the Big 10 tournament to solidify themselves for a decent seed in the NCAA tournament. Tonight, they end their regular season with their final home game against the visiting #18 Purdue Boilermakers (21-9). Like Illinois, Purdue had lost 4 straight games before winning their last 2. 3 of their last 4 losses have come on the road like they will be here in this matchup. There was some serious worry when Purdue lost their last road game to unranked Indiana by 15. However, they have bounced back with double-digit wins over UCLA and Rutgers. Neither of those opponents are ranked but both can knock off anyone in the conference on any given night. Loyer and Smith combined for 46 of their 100 points against Rutgers, it will be interesting to see if they can continue their hot shooting in this contest.