The Purdue Boilermakers are 0-7 straight up and 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games as a betting underdog. The Boilermakers will need to pull off their first upset since 2015 on Thursday against the Kansas Jayhawks if they want to advance to the Elite Eight.
NCAA tournament odds 2017: Purdue, Xavier betting underdogs for Sweet 16
Two of the remaining top seeds hope to avoid upsets on Thursday with Purdue vs. Kansas and Xavier vs. Arizona rounding out the day’s Sweet 16 matchups.
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No. 4 Purdue is a 5-point underdog at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. With their 80-76 win over No. 5 Iowa last Saturday, the Boilermakers improved to 2-0 SU and ATS in tournament play, and 13-3 SU and 10-4-2 ATS in their last 16 games overall. The Boilermakers are 5-1 ATS in their last six games against Big 12 opponents.
Kansas has bounced back nicely from its shocking loss to TCU in the Big 12 Tournament, opening the NCAA tournament with back-to-back blowout wins over UC Davis by 38 points and Michigan State by 20.
The No. 1 Jayhawks are 7-1 SU and 6-2 ATS over their last eight games per the OddsShark College Basketball Database, and are peaking on offense at the right time with 90.5 points per game over their last four games. In its last 30 games against Big Ten opponents, Kansas is 24-6 SU.
The No. 2 Arizona Wildcats burst out from under the shadows of UCLA and Oregon with a 3-0 SU and ATS run through the Pac-12 Tournament, and are now 6-0 SU and 5-0-1 ATS over their last six games following a 69-60 win over Saint Mary’s on Saturday.
Arizona is the biggest favorite on the board on Thursday, going off as 7.5-point chalk against the Xavier Musketeers. The Wildcats are 30-0 SU in their last 30 games as a favorite of seven points or more.
No. 11 Xavier limped into March with an 0-6 SU and ATS slump, but that suddenly feels like forever ago, as the Musketeers are 5-1 SU and 6-0 ATS over their last six games. Facing Florida State as a 7.5-point underdog on Saturday, Xavier pulled off one of the most surprising performances of the tournament so far, with a 91-66 blowout win over the Seminoles.
The Musketeers, though, are just 2-5 SU and ATS on the college basketball lines in their last seven games against Pac-12 opponents.
