Picks for 11/13/25
College Basketball
7:00 PM EST
Rotation # 749
Purdue +3.5 over Alabama (win)
Most college basketball teams lose a bulk of their talent every year, which makes every season unpredictable and entertaining. Purdue returns 4 of their top 5 players in terms of total playing time from last year’s team. Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer are two outstanding guards. Trey Kaufman-Renn is a big forward who has yet to play this year with a hip injury, but will play tonight’s game. Daniel Jacobsen is a beast, standing at 7’4, and he hopes to stay healthy this season. Big man Oscar Cluff was a key transfer portal pickup from South Dakota State. The Boilermakers can hit you with pure size and strength or finesse. Alabama will be in the mix come late March, but they haven’t retained as much talent as they did a year ago and are dealing with a few injuries. The Crimson Tide is favored only because it’s a home game. It’s a battle of two different tempos. The Boilermakers value the basketball while Alabama likes to run. The Boilermakers can frustrate the Tide by not playing at a pace similar to St. John’s on Saturday. If you get into a track match with Bama, it’s not going to end well. The Boilermakers will make it a half-court game and force enough turnovers to keep this game close. There is value in the underdog. Take Purdue.