Point Spread: Boilermakers Heavy Favroite in Season Opener Against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It's time to tip off another Purdue basketball season, and there's a lot to live up to after last season's run to the national championship game. The Boilermakers are back in action at Mackey Arena, taking on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6 p.m. ET
As expected the Boilermakers are a big favorite over the Islanders, who play in the Southland Conference and went 21-12 a year ago. According to the FanDuel.com gambling website, Purdue is a 22.5-point favorite and the over/under is 145.5.
Purdue finished 23-15-1 against the spread a year ago, and won and covered five straight NCAA Tournament games before losing to Connecticut in the national championship game.
We are all well aware that this is a different Purdue team, of course, without 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, the two-time national player of the year who's now in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies. But these Boilermakers are also still very good, with a lot of returning starters and a bevy of young talent.
Paying attention to what the Boilermakers did in the nonconference season a year ago might have some bearing on what this season might be like. They were 9-2 against the spread and won all 11 games outside Big Ten play.
That's impressive.
Betting the Boilermakers even with big numbers is still usually a good thing. They were favored by 20 points or more four times last year, and won AND covered in all four games against Samford, Morehead State, Texas Southern and Jacksonville.
These two teams played in the 2006-07 season and Purdue won 79-61 as a 17.5-point favorite.
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Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.