T.M. Selection: Purdue

The Boilermakers are a solid #4 seed and truly deserve even more respect than they are being given here. Purdue is 24-11 this season and, in those 35 games, they have only 7 losses by more than 9 points. Granted, Houston is a great team but the Boilermakers faced plenty of strong teams all season long in the Big Ten. That said, getting the big points with Purdue is a huge value based on the fact 8 of last 10 Cougars wins have been a single digit margin! This is a game that certainly looks like yet another Houston game decided by just single digits and I have this one going down to the wire. The Boilermakers, with the inside-out combo of Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith, have enough scoring prowess to give this strong Cougars defense some problem. As for the Houston offense, it can get sluggish at times and that is another reason 80% of their last ten victories have been by a single digit margin!

T.M. Prediction: 66-65 Houston