Rutgers vs. Northwestern Pick
Can Northwestern improve its chances at making the Big Dance when it takes on Rutgers at 8:30PM ET tonight in the Big Ten Tournament?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, Northwestern is the favorite tonight, as the Wildcats are getting odds of -7 points against Rutgers. The over/under total is listed at 123 points Northwestern owns two wins over Rutgers this season, both coming by single digits. These two meet today from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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Northwestern ended its regular season with a 69-65 loss to Purdue to finish 21-10 overall and 10-8 in the Big Ten. The Wildcats have the sixth seed in this tournament and they are 17-11 against the spread. Northwestern is averaging 71.4 points per game on offense this season while allowing 64.9 on defense. Bryant McIntosh has been leading the team this season with 14.6 points and 5.4 assists per game while Scottie Lindsey is adding 14 points per contest.
Rutgers is coming off a surprising 66-57 win over Ohio State last night to advance to this game. The Knights are now 15-17 overall after having won their last two games. They have covered in four of their last five games to move to 13-12-1 against the spread on the season. Rutgers averages 65 points per game on offense this season while allowing 66.9 on defense. Corey Sanders is leading the team with 12.8 points per game while Deshawn Freeman is adding 11.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
Northwestern has been trying to ride emotion for the last month of the season, but it hasn’t turned out well. The Wildcats are just 3-7 in their last 10 and 3-7 against the spread as well. Rutgers, despite losing a lot of games, has been competitive for the past few weeks and had one of their best performances of the season on Wednesday. I think the Knights keep this game close and cover, if not pull off the upset.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL DAILY PREDICTION: RUTGERS +7