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Alabama visits Purdue, in a terrific early Season College Basketball matchup - NCAAB Week 2 Odds & Expert Analysis

Alabama visits Purdue, in a terrific early Season Matchup – NCAAB Week 2 Odds & Expert Analysis

Written by on November 15, 2024

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Two teams that made the 2024 Final Four meet in a terrific early season college basketball matchup on Friday night as No. 2 Alabama visits No. 13 Purdue in a Peacock national steaming exclusive.

The Boilermakers are short favorites on the NCAAB odds in the Week 2.

Opening NCAAB Lines Subject to Change: Purdue -1.5 (total 163)
Expert Prediction: Alabama 81, Purdue 78
 

Alabama Crimson Tide NCAAB Line -145

No. 2 Alabama (3-0) comes off a 72-64 win over a good McNeese State team on Monday. The Cowboys, playing their highest-ranking opponent since 2013, trailed by 21 points at 57-36 with 14:47 to play in the second half but cut the lead as far as six but couldn’t get closer.

Grant Nelson

Nelson led the Tide with 22 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and tying the season-high for Alabama players this year. Star Mark Sears added 15 points of his own, which was enough to pass Charles Cleveland for No. 29 spot on Alabama’s all-time scoring list with 1,313 points Latrell Wrightsell Jr. tallied a season-high 15 points, scoring 12 of them in the second half alone.

Nate Oats

I thought the second half, particularly the last 14 minutes of the game, they did a perfect job taking us out of what we wanted to do,” Tide coach Oats said. I thought we played too slow. The ball ended up getting to the right place at times way too late in the clock. We played down in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock way more often than we’d like to do. We knew they were going to be a good team, we knew they were going to be really athletic. They made a lot of tough shots. They shot 11-of-22 on non-rim twos, and most of them were pretty contested. Furthermore, they kind of defied the percentages there a little bit, and you just have to give them a ton of credit for how hard they played.”

Nate’s Numbers

Oats’ 117 wins in his first five seasons at Alabama stand as the most wins in a five-year span in program history. Alabama is the only team in Division I that has three players on its roster that has started 100 career games or more throughout their collegiate careers in Chris Youngblood (118 starts), Sears (114 starts) and Clifford Omoruyi (104 starts). The Crimson Tide’s roster is the only one in the country that has six players that have scored 1,000 career points throughout their Division I careers: Sears (2,151 points), Youngblood (1,732 points), Nelson (1,483 points), Houston Mallette (1,295 points), Omoruyi (1,251 points) and Wrightsell Jr. (1,074 points).

Mark Sears

The Tide were picked to win the SEC this season, the third time in program history (1991 and 2003) Alabama has been picked first in the SEC preseason poll. Sears joined Erwin Dudley (2003) as the only players in program history to be named as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year. Alabama is one of two teams in the country (Indiana) that has a player named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Watch List (Omoruyi), Bob Cousy Watch List (Sears) and Karl Malone Watch List (Nelson).

The Defense

Alabama is looking to improve overall as a defense this season after ranking No. 111 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency last season, per KenPom. Three games in, that number has reached No. 21, albeit with a very tough schedule ahead. “Last year, hearing what they were saying, ‘Can’t play defense,’ I’m talking it personal all year,” Sears said after the McNeese win.

Alabama is 18-25 under Oats in AP Top-25 matchups and 4-14 in away games. The Tide are 3-3 under Oats against the Big Ten, with the last meeting against a school from that league the Purdue loss in the 2023-24 campaign.

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Alabama at Purdue Odds provided by MyBookie

 

Purdue Boilermakers NCAAB Line +118

No. 13 Purdue lost in the national title game last year and lost superstar center Zach Edey to the NBA but has started 3-0 behind the team’s next great player, preseason Big Ten Player of the Year pick Braden Smith. In Monday’s 92-84 win over a good Yale team, Smith scored 22 points with nine rebounds, six assists and five steals. He is the first Big Ten player in the last 20 years to reach those marks in a game.

Braden Smith

For his career in 77 games, Smith has 853 points, 473 assists and 392 rebounds. This season, Smith is averaging 15.0 points, 9.3 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game. Smith (473) needs nine assists to move into third place on Purdue’s career assists list. Tony Jones (1987-90) and Everette Stephens (1985-88) are tied for third with 481 career helpers.

Purdue’s big three of Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn combined for 53 of Purdue’s 92 points in the win. Loyer went 2-of-2 from 3-point range against Yale and is now 9-of-12 (.750) on the season. Dating to March 1 a year ago, Loyer is 28-of-45 (.622) from 3-point range.

Purdue Stats

In three games this season, Purdue is shooting 31-of-71 (.437) from 3-point range after going 11-of-23 against Yale. The Boilermakers finished last year ranked 2nd in the country in 3-point percentage, and comparatively speaking, shot 31-of-67 (.463) in the first three games a year ago.

The Streak

Purdue won its 38th straight regular-season non-conference game, good for the fifth-longest streak in NCAA history. The only streaks longer are Syracuse (52; 2008-12), North Carolina (43; 2006-09), Illinois (40; 2003-06) and Arizona (39; 2011-14).

Purdue’s 20-game home winning streak is now the fourth-longest active streak in the country, and it has won 24 straight games in the month of November. The Boilers also have won 122 straight games when scoring 90 points, and 62 straight games when shooting at least 50.0 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from 3-point range and 70.0 percent from the free throw line.

Mackey Arena

Alabama’s No. 2 national ranking marks the highest-ranked visitor into Mackey Arena in nearly 13 years. The last team ranked in the top two that played in Mackey Arena was No. 2 Ohio State on Feb. 20, 2011, a 76-63 Purdue victory. The Crimson Tide will be the highest-ranked non-conference team to play in Mackey Arena since Mackey Arena’s very first game, a 73-71 loss to No. 1 UCLA on Dec. 6, 1967.

Purdue owns a 6-15 record all-time against teams ranked No. 2 in the AP poll. However, the Boilermakers are 5-6 in their last 11 games against teams ranked No. 2, spanning almost 35 years. Purdue is 3-1 at Mackey Arena against teams ranked No. 2.

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How to Bet Alabama at Purdue Odds NCAA Basketball Odds

When: Friday, 7 PM ET
Where: Mackey Arena
TV: None national
Stream: Peacock
Radio: Tunein.com

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Alabama vs Purdue Series History

Purdue and Alabama have played nine times, with the Boilermakers leading the all-time series 6-3. They also played last regular season in a neutral site in Toronto, and the No. 4 Boilers beat the unranked Tide 92-86. Zach Edey led Purdue with 35 points and of course would go on to win Big Ten Player of the Year and National Player of the Year for the second straight season – but is now in the NBA. The Boilermakers connected on 24 of 28 free-throw attempts. All-American Mark Sears led the Tide with 35 points. There will be 21 teams and 23 NBA scouts in attendance for Friday’s contest. It’s believed to be the most NBA teams at a game in 30 years.

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