NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Trends: Purdue vs Alabama

Saturday, December 12 - 9 PM ET

Anthony Grant has come in with the purpose of reorganizing the Alabama basketball program, and although it was not going to be an easy task mopping up after the departure of Mark Gottfried, Grant, the former coach at Virginia Commonwealth, has done a commendable job. The Tide was disappointed with a season-opening loss to Ivy league champion Cornell, the team has scored wins over Baylor and Michigan and is on a three-game winning streak.

Mikhail Torrence has taken charge in the backcourt, averaging 5.6 assist a game and hitting 53% from the field. He's one of the reasons Alabama is turning the ball over just twelve times a game this season. Grant has an impressive pair of forwards at his disposal in JaMychal Green (14.4 ppg, 2.4 blocks), a former McDonald's All-American, and freshman Tony Mitchell, who is tallying 10.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in less than 20 minutes a game.

Here are some of the college basketball gambling trends as they relate to this matchup:

• PUR has won 13 of its last 14 games SU
• PUR lost four of its last five road games SU
• PUR has covered two of its last nine road games
• PUR has played six of its last nine road games OVEr the total
• BAMA has won six of its last seven games SU
• BAMA has covered four of its last five games
• BAMA has played five of its last six games UNDER the total
• BAMA has won four of its last five home games SU

Purdue, as we know, is a very balanced team with at least three players who might find their way into the All-Big Ten squad before all is said and done. We are talking about E'Twaun Moore (16.8 points), JaJuan Johnson (14.3) and Robbie Hummel (13.7), not to mention Chris Kramer, who is a prime candidate for defensive player of the year honors in the conference. He will lock down on Torrence or Senario Hillman and make the offensive flow that much tougher for 'Bama. Purdue is one of the nation's better defensive teams, allowing just 38% field goals and forcing over 20 turnovers per game. They'll make the Tide do some things it doesn't want to do.

This is Purdue's first road game of the year, but the Boilermakers have the experience and defense to be able to handle it just fine. We appreciate that Alabama is more disciplined, but we don't think they're there just yet. We're laying it with Purdue, one of the Big Ten's best and the favorite in the BetUS NCAA basketball betting odds.