Games To Bet in Big Ten: Top-10 Heavyweights on Collision Course

Wisconsin moved up seven spots to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll and went from 10th to sixth in the USA Today coaches poll. Illinois tumbled to No. 14 in both polls.

Purdue is second, Wisconsin is 11th and Illinois went from 14th to 12th in the NCAA NET rankings, one of the tools used to select and seed the NCAA Tournament field. The next Big Ten team is No. 24 Michigan State.

When looking at the college basketball futures odds, Purdue (+850) has the best odds of winning the NCAAM Championship. Illinois (+3500) and Wisconsin (+3500) are the next Big Ten teams listed.

1. Northwestern (15-6 SU, 9-9-2 ATS) at Minnesota (13-7 SU, 17-3 ATS)

• Date/Time: Saturday, February 3, 2 p.m. ET
• TV & Live Stream: Big Ten Network

The home team has won three games in a row in the series between the Wildcats and the Golden Gophers so keep that in mind when it comes to the NCAAB picks today.

Northwestern will be coming off a matchup with Purdue while Minnesota hasn’t played since a nine-point win at Penn State on Jan. 27.

Dawson Garcia had 22 points for Minnesota in that win to give him three 20-point efforts over his last four games.

Northwestern top scorer Boo Buie is shooting just 38% from the field on the road compared to a 48% mark at home. He was just 2-for-15 in his last road game. Buie had 21 points and eight assists the last time he faced Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers have covered against the Las Vegas odds in 13 of their 14 home games. Northwestern is 1-3-1 against the spread in its five true road games.

2. Purdue (17-4 SU, 12-7-2 ATS) at Wisconsin (16-4 SU, 11-8-1 ATS)

• Date/Time: Sunday, February 4, 1 p.m. ET
• TV & Live Stream: CBS

This is not going to be the easiest week for the second-ranked Boilermakers. After facing a Northwestern team that has won the last two matchups, Purdue heads to Madison to meet up with Wisconsin in a top-10 showdown.

Purdue has won five games in a row and is 5-0 against teams ranked in the top 25 in the two national polls. Wisconsin, which currently leads the Big Ten, is on a three-game winning streak.

Sophomore AJ Storr is averaging 19.3 points over the last three games for Wisconsin. Purdue’s Zach Edey, listed by the college basketball odds as the National Player of the Year front-runner, is averaging 27 points and 14.8 rebounds during the five-game winning streak.

CONGRATULATIONS to @zach_edey on becoming just the 6th Boiler to accomplish the feat! pic.twitter.com/HHMQsOAh7p

— Purdue Boilers on SR (@SRBoilermakers) January 30, 2024

He had 17 points and 19 rebounds the last time the Boilermakers faced Wisconsin.

Each of the last two games between the Boilermakers and Badgers finished under the total after the previous five all went over.

Purdue has covered against the NCAAB lines in just three of its six road games. Wisconsin is 7-4-1 ATS at home.

3. Nebraska (13-5 SU, 12-9 ATS) at Illinois (14-4 SU, 11-7-3 ATS)

• Date/Time: Sunday, February 4, 6:30 p.m. ET
• TV & Live Stream: Big Ten Network

Illinois goes after its eighth straight win against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have covered in three of those games.

After posting back-to-back wins against Northwestern and Ohio State, the wheels fell off in Nebraska’s 22-point road loss to unranked Maryland.

Nebraska’s leading scorer Keisei Tominaga has a total of 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting in the last two games. Nebraska has played without fourth-leading scorer Juwan Gary since an overtime loss to Rutgers on Jan. 17.

Marcus Domask is averaging 19.5 points over the last two games and was 11-for-11 at the foul line in wins over Indiana and Ohio State.

Nebraska hasn’t won at Illinois since 2016.

Only two of the last 12 games between the Cornhuskers and Fighting Illini landed over the total.

Illinois is 4-1-1 ATS in its road games this season with five of those games going over the total.

Questions Of The Day