Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Purdue Boilermakers: NCAA Basketball Free Pick

Head Coach Tubby Smith has a team with a great record this year and a Top 25 ranking, but the problem that the Gophers have is that they really haven’t played all that well against some of the best teams in the Big Ten. The biggest issue for Minnesota is that there aren’t all that many big time scorers available. Blake Hoffarber is averaging 14.0 points per game this year to lead the club, but he has been wildly inconsistent. Against the Iowa Hawkeyes and Purdue Boilermakers, he only scored a combined 21 points. In games against the Northwestern Wildcats and the Purdue Boilermakers, he scored 20 and 26 respectively. The only two other double digit point scorers on the average basis on this team are Trevor Mbakwe and Ralph Sampson III. Mbakwe is a double-double man as well, averaging 10.5 boards per game. Aside from that, there are only three other scorers that are averaging even 4.0 points per game. Still, Minnesota is on a four game winning streak and is 4-1 ATS over the course of its last five games.

The Boilermakers are really a two man show, as JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore are real stars. Johnson is averaging 20.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game this year, and he has also blocked 44 shots on the campaign. Moore is averaging 18.0 points per game this year as well. Both men are perfectly capable of scoring at least 20 points in any game. The picture perfect display of this was seen against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Johnson scored 22 points, while Moore put up 16, but there wasn’t another player on the team that scored more than nine points. Lewis Jackson is the third leading scoring Boilermaker at 6.8 points per game. This is one of the worst marks in the nation for elite teams. Still, when push comes to shove, Head Coach Matt Painter has a club that is scoring 74.5 points per game and is allowing 60.7 points per game, both marks of which are in the Top 70 in the country.

Purdue got its reality check in Columbus, though, but it is going to be able to rebound back on its home court against an overrated club. The Boilers are 6-2 ATS at Mackey Arena this year, and they should be able to log yet another double digit victory to get back on track in the Big Ten.