Friday NCAA Games: Nebraska-Purdue, Michigan-Illinois

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While Friday is usually the slowest night around college basketball during the regular season, bettors have two ranked Big Ten schools in action to wager on this Friday. Here’s a quick look at both, and check back for NCAAB odds.

Friday’s College Basketball Betting Odds

Nebraska at #7 Purdue

This tips at 7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

The Huskers played pretty well Tuesday but lost at home to Illinois 81-71. Bryce McGowens paced three Huskers (6-11, 0-6) with 19 points and six rebounds. Alonzo Verge Jr. and Derrick Walker each added 14 points. Walker added seven rebounds while Verge tallied nine assists. The Huskers shot 45.8 percent from the field (25-59) and was 6-for-12 from the three-point range (50 percent).

McGowens ranks second nationally among all true freshmen in scoring at 15.9 points per game. Nebraska players have combined for eight double-doubles in 16 games this season after just having three in 2020-21.

NU bad news depth-wise this week that senior forward Trevor Lakes will be out indefinitely because of a lingering shoulder injury. Lakes, who underwent surgery on his right shoulder last March, managed the injury throughout the year, but had a recent setback. Lakes played in eight games this season, averaging 1.5 points and 0.9 rebounds per game. He had a season-high eight points in the Huskers’ win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22.

Purdue has been off since a 74-67 win at Penn State on Saturday. After Penn State took a 65-64 lead with 3:42 to play, the Boilermakers outscored the Nittany Lions 10-2 the rest of the game. Star Trevion Williams, coming off the bench for the first time in five games, scored 21 points including the final go-ahead basket. Purdue’s center tandem of Trevion Williams and Zach Edey had 27 points, 15 rebounds and 3 assists, going 12-of-16 from the field in only 31 minutes.

The victory was Matt Painter’s 182nd in Big Ten play, moving into a tie for seventh with Jud Heathcote on the Big Ten’s wins list in league games only. He has 368 wins at Purdue, needing just three more wins to tie Ward “Piggy” Lambert for second on Purdue’s career victories list.

This is the only scheduled meeting between Purdue and Nebraska this season.

Michigan at #25 Illinois

Tip of 9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. Michigan hasn’t played since a 75-67 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 4 with games vs. Michigan State and Purdue postponed due to COVID, but the Wolverines are expected to take the court Friday – just maybe not at full strength.

For a second season, All-American Hunter Dickinson leads U-M in scoring (16.1) and rebounding (8.8). Eli Brooks is second with 12.9 points per game and Caleb Houstan is third at 9.5 points. Juwan Howard is quickly moving up amongst the U-M head coaches of the past. He needs just one more win to reach 50 wins. He would become the fourth third year coach to with 50+ games — Steve Fisher had 62, while Tommy Amaker and Brian Ellerbe had 52.

Illinois beat Nebraska 81-71 on Tuesday. After being tied with four minutes left, the Illini ended the game on a 16-6 run, fueled by Trent Frazier and Omar Payne. Frazier finished the night with a season-high 29 points, shooting 50% from the field and three-point range. Frazier’s free throw shooting was crucial down the stretch as he finished 8-10 from the line.

The Illini’s inside presence commanded the game as they scored 44 points in the paint and secured 42 rebounds, 15 of those on the offensive end. Kofi Cockburn secured his ninth double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Coleman Hawkins added eight and Payne grabbed five.

The Illini have outrebounded 13 of 15 opponents and rank second in the NCAA in rebound margin at +14.1 rpg, behind only Kentucky’s 15.1. Illinois is outrebounding its opponents 238-140 (47.6-28.0 rpg) in its four Big Ten games.

Illinois is 5-0 in Big Ten play for the first time since 2005, when it won its first 15 league games. Illinois is on a nine-game Big Ten winning streak, claiming its final four games last season along with this year’s 5-0 start. Illinois’ nine-game Big Ten winning streak is its longest since it set a school record with 25 consecutive Big Ten victories spanning the 2004 (10) and 2005 (15) seasons (Jan. 31, 2004-March 3, 2005).

Michigan and Illinois are scheduled to play again Feb. 27 in Ann Arbor.