Purdue at Michigan (-2.5) - 9:15am Pacific

This is a pivotal game for the Wolverines.  They have played four of their last five games on the road and return home today for just the second time since students returned from winter break.  Surprisingly, this game marks the first sellout of the season at 13,751 seat Crisler Arena.  Michigan is currently 3-4 in Big 10 play and will play two more road games at Minnesota and at Iowa following this.  They really need this win to keep NCAA tournament hopes comfortable.

 

Purdue started the season on fire winning 8 of their first 9 games including an upset over Duke, but since then they are just 7-5.  They were fortunate to get narrow wins over the top two Big 10 teams, Wisconsin by 2 and Illinois by 4 or things would be looking much worse right now.  They have had some very suspect losses at Colorado State, and to both Ohio State and SMU in West Lafayette.  Senior guard Kenneth Lowe (best all around player, leads team in both scoring and minutes played) has missed the last two games with a sprained elbow and remains questionable today.  He will probably be a game time decision.  I expect him to play some but how much he can help his team remains to be seen.  Purdue is 3-4 in true road games, but two of the three wins came at Baylor and at Penn State, both very poor teams. 

 

While Purdue played at Penn State on Wednesday night and will be playing back to back road conference games, Michigan has been off since last Saturday and will be playing at home.  Wolverines are 9-2 at home this season and have won 8 of their last 11 conference home games.  Give the small number.

 

Michigan  1 UNIT