Purdue Boilermakers (33-4) vs NC State Wolfpack (26-14)
Saturday, April 06, 2024 at 6:09 pm
This is a play on the NC STATE WOLFPACK for our NCST/PUR Final Four Dominator. This is the contrarian call and we say contrarian based on the line and the seeding for NC State but not based on the early betting moves which does tell the story early on. The Wolfpack have garnered 75 percent of the money and 65 percent of the tickets but the number has not moved. It has been an historic run for NC State as it has won nine straight games to make it to its first Final Four in over 40 years and this from a team that was not even on the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament. Its 14 losses are the most ever for any team to make the Final Four. Eight of those losses were Quad 1 defeats but only two of those were by more points than what the Wolfpack are getting here and those were against Duke and North Carolina. Purdue is the big chalk for a reason and it has it all to win the National Championship as the Boilermakers are elite on both sides of the ball, ranked No. 2 on offense and No. 16 on defense in the country and of course are led by center Zach Edey, who has won the Naismith Player of the Year two seasons in a row. Purdue has played 21 games away from home and has gone 17-4 but only seven of those wins have come by more than eight points, two of those coming against non-major teams, three against Big Ten teams that did not make the NCAA Tournament and the other two against Gonzaga by 10 and 12 points and those latter two are the only true quality victories. 10* (673) NC State Wolfpack
Matt’s Pick NC State Wolfpack: +9.5 -120
AUTHOR: Matt Fargo
