As the lone double-digit seed remaining in the NCAA Tournament, Texas will battle Purdue for a spot in the Elite Eight on Thursday night.
The Longhorns are significant underdogs against a No. 2-seeded Boilermakers team that is among the most experienced squads in the country. Still, Texas has proven it can hang against elite teams. UT defeated Gonzaga in the Round of 32 to get to this stage.
Texas vs. Purdue DFS predictions
Here are a couple of predictions for this game from Underdog‘s Pick’Em offerings:
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue: Lower than 8.5 rebounds
We were on Trey Kaufman-Renn’s rebounding projection for Purdue’s Big Ten title game and that was an easy cash. He was projected for 8.5 rebounds in that game but corralled just 3 despite Purdue’s victory. He’s recorded 9 boards in each of Purdue’s first 2 NCAA Tournament games, but I still like taking the low side of 8.5 in this matchup. Kaufman-Renn will be facing a Texas front line that’s excellent on the glass — top 40 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding rate. Both of these offenses are elite, too, so there’s likely to be fewer rebounding opportunities overall. The total for this game (149) is the third-highest of the Sweet 16 matchups despite being projected for just 64.7 possessions, according to EvanMiya.
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Tramon Mark, Texas: Lower than 4.5 rebounds
I’m taking the low side of this projection for a lot of the same reasons I just mentioned. This should be a matchup between highly-efficient but slow-paced offensive teams, leading to fewer overall rebounding opportunities. Mark averaged 3.7 rebounds per game during SEC play. His minutes have ticked up during the NCAA Tournament, but he’s still had fewer than 5 boards in 2 of those 3 games. Even if he gets to 32+ minutes, Mark’s rebounding total should still come in at 4 or lower.
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The current Kalshi odds show Purdue as a huge favorite to win this game outright. Kalshi is legal in most US states:
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
