March Madness Sweet 16 - (5) Purdue Boilermakers vs. (1) UConn Huskies

BetUS NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Odds: CONNECTICUT -6.5, Total 134

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* PUR has won its last five games SU

* CONN has covered three of its last nine games

* CONN has won 18 of its last 21 games SU

* CONN has played four of its last six games OVER the total

* CONN has played 15 of its last 23 games UNDER the total

>> Download the BetUS March Madness Bracket Here!

The Huskies have blown out a couple of foes, but this will be a bigger test than Chattanooga or Texas A&M, because Purdue at least comes with a more varied attack. The Boilermakers have not had the easiest time of it, as they have scratched out wins against Northern Iowa and Washington. If there is a team that has more of an "edge" to it, that has to be Purdue. If there is a team that is better "rested," it would be U-Conn. Many doubters virtually disqualified the Huskies from ultimate title contention because they had lost guard Jerome Dyson, but here they are with no sweat (although we can't say that about coach Jim Calhoun, who was in the hospital for the first game).

Purdue is a balanced team with versatile players, not the least of whom is Robbie Hummel, a 6'8" forward who is more comfortable out on the perimeter than he is banging underneath. That job goes to JaJuan Johnson, the center who made the All-Big Ten team. Johnson, though, is going to have his hands full and then some with shot-swatter Hasheem Thabeet, who has averaged 4,5 blocks this year. Purdue guard Chris Kramer has earned a reputation for shutting down the opposition's big backcourt scorers, but here he may be out of his element. Connecticut is perfectly comfortable with its offensive strength up front, with Thabeet's offense improving (13.7 ppg) and the productive power forward Jeff Adrien (12.9 ppg, 10.2 rpg). Okay, we'll throw in guard A.J. Price (27 points vs. A&M) for good measure. Neither team fools around a lot on defense (U-Conn allows 37.7%, Purdue 38.8%), but the Huskies have that added dimension of a guy who keeps players out of the paint and on the other end, they go after misses (12.3 offensive rebounds a game, which is 33% more than Purdue).

I think the point we're trying to make here is that this matchup does not work for Purdue. Since U-Conn will own the lane, the Boilermakers are going to have to be a jump shooting team, or else they're probably going to have to try and get Thabeet into foul trouble somehow. It's a pretty tough hand for Purdue coach Matt Painter to play, and we don’t like it. We're going to lay the points with u-Conn, the 6.5-point favorite in the BetUS NCAA Tournament sports betting odds.

JAY'S PLAY: CONNECTICUT -6.5 ***

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)