For a second straight weekend, college basketball predictions provided by BetUs were accurate. Both times, the Ohio State Buckeyes were on the road in a hostile environment facing a tough Big Ten opponent and the result was not what they were looking for.
Two weekends ago, the Buckeyes lost at the Kohl Center as the Wisconsin Badgers upended the then No. 1 team in the nation. On Sunday, the Purdue Boilermakers were next in line to take their shot at the top team in the Big Ten and they did exactly that.
With a career-high 38 points from E’Twaun Moore, the Boilermakers ran the Buckeyes off the floor in the 76-63.
So now the Buckeyes, who were the No. 1 team in the nation, have lost two of their last three contests and have opened up a window of opportunity for the Boilermakers. The question is: can the Boilermakers keep up their hot stretch and win the Big Ten?
With Sunday’s win, the Boilermakers pulled within one game of the Buckeyes for the Big Ten lead, which means they don’t have a lot of ground to make up. But the problem is that they don’t have a lot of time either.
Both teams have just four games remaining but it does look like Purdue has the easier schedule. The Buckeyes finish up the season against No. 12 Wisconsin while the Boilermakers don’t have any top 25 opponents on their schedule.
The real difference, though, is the home court advantage that Ohio State will have. For the Boilermakers, they are a perfect 15-0 at Mackey Arena but they are just 7-5 away from it. That figures to be a problem as three of their final four games are on the road.
For Ohio State, three of their final four games are at home, which gives them the edge.
Anything is possible as the Boilermakers have really closed the gap. We’ll have to see how it plays out over the final couple weeks of the season.
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