The Nebraska Cornhuskers' dream season continues on Tuesday night with a home date against the Purdue Boilermakers.
The pregame narrative: No. 7 Nebraska (21-2) is five wins shy of matching a school record, and there are plenty of games left to play. Tonight, the Huskers are slight favourites against No. 13 Purdue, a squad that has dropped three of its past five.
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Check out my college basketball same-game parlay Purdue vs. Nebraska picks, featuring prop bets on Braden Smith and Braden Frager.
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Purdue vs. Nebraska picks
SGP: Under 150.5 points | Smith under 15.5 points | Frager 10+ points (+380)
Under 150.5 points (-136): Purdue and Nebraska both rank in the top 25 in the country in effective field goal percentage, but their defences aren't going to make anything easy tonight.
Both teams tend to force their opponents to grind out possessions in the halfcourt. Out of 365 NCAA Division I schools, the Boilermakers and Cornhuskers allow the 15th and 64th-longest possessions on defence, per KenPom.com.
A key component of that is foul discipline. Both schools rank inside the top 10 in fewest fouls committed per game.
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Unsurprisingly, these are both unders-heavy teams. Unders are a combined 30-16 in their respective games this season — including 6-1 in Nebraska's past seven.
KenPom projects a 145-point total for tonight's matchup, while BartTorkvik.com projects 143 points.
College basketball prop pick
Smith under 15.5 points (-114): This is a line Smith falls short of more often than not (13-10, 56.5%), and I see this as another prime opportunity for an under.
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Part of my reasoning is just that I expect a relatively low-scoring game. And the fact that it's a road game; Smith has gone under this point total in six of 10 road/neutral games this season.
Additionally, Nebraska can match strength-on-strength with Smith's 3-point shooting.
The reigning Big Ten Player of the Year is shooting 42.7% on 4.2 attempted 3s per game this season. Nebraska, meanwhile, allows just a 30.2 3PT% (31st in D-I).
In four career starts, Smith has just 36 total points and is 4-0 vs. this prop.
Boilermakers/Cornhuskers prop prediction
Frager 10+ points (-225): Frager, a Nebraska native, is living the dream in his freshman season with the Huskers.
Coming off the bench for the surprise powerhouse, the 6-foot-7 forward has posted 51.5/37.0/84.6 shooting splits. He's averaging 12.2 PPG.
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Over his past 10 games, Frager has been even better, with a 52.2 FG% and 13.8 PPG. If you take out his game against Washington, when he left after four minutes with an ankle sprain, he's at 15.1 PPG in that span.
Even in a game that should be fairly low-scoring, this is a nice milestone to back Frager at. He's 14-7 against it this year.
Purdue vs. Nebraska picks made at 12:45 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2026.
