A sneaky-good mid-major in the Lipscomb Bison will travel to take on the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday. Can the small school from Nashville pull off the major upset?
TV Schedule: Saturday, Dec. 30, 8:00 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network
Arena: Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Indiana
After back to back losses to the Tennessee Volunteers and Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the Battle 4 Atlantis, the Purdue Boilermakers have won eight straight games. These eight wins include victories over the Arizona Wildcats, the Louisville Cardinals, the Maryland Terrapins, the Northwestern Wildcats, and the Butler Bulldogs.
The Boilermakers will head into Big Ten play with an impressive overall record of 12-2, but face a trap game against an extremely talented Lipscomb Bison squad.
Lipscomb, which plays in the Atlantic Sun conference and should be the favorite to go to the NCAA Tournament along with the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, has a 9-4 record entering their game with Purdue. In that span, they have beaten the Belmont Bruins twice and played three potential NCAA Tournament teams in the Tennessee Volunteers, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the Texas Longhorns with their lone “embarrassing” loss to Tennessee Tech.
Lipscomb is not a pushover and, while Purdue should win this game, the Bison could easily hold their own against the Boilermakers – especially if they get caught looking ahead to conference play.
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That being said, Purdue should win and likely will. This is an extremely solid basketball team that continues to get better and should be flying high after their absolute demolition of the Tennessee State Tigers by 49 points.
Prediction: Purdue 79, Lipscomb 64