The Northwestern Wildcats (20-10, 11-8 Big Ten) meet the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (18-12, 10-9) Sunday in Jersey Mike’s Arena at 7:30 p.m. ET (Big Ten Network). Below, we analyze Tipico Sportsbook’s lines around the Northwestern vs. Rutgers odds, and make our expert college basketball picks, predictions and bets.
After an ugly last-second 75-74 loss at Minnesota after leading by 10 with 80 seconds left, Rutgers will return home to do battle with a Northwestern team which has exceeded all expectations this season.
This will be a defensive battle between 2 of the best defenses in the Big Ten as both look to head into the conference tournament with a win after both suffered losses in their previous outings.
While Rutgers was taking a terrible loss to last place Minnesota, Northwestern was losing to fellow bubble team Penn State 68-65 in overtime.' A win for either team would certainly go a long way in the eyes of the committee in a Big Ten Conference looking to get 9 teams into the NCAA Tournament.'