Queens University won the Atlantic Sun in just its fourth year in the big leagues of college basketball, and this is its first NCAA Tournament.
Purdue is in its 37th NCAA Tournament, played for the national title two years ago, and under Matt Painter has another team ready to go on a big run.
The Boilermaker offense will roll against a Lancer defense that struggles just a wee bit- to be nice about it – but with an offense that fires shots at will.
There won’t be anything shy about this – with Queens playing, the offenses will reign supreme.
The winner gets either Miami or Missouri.
Purdue vs Queens Game Preview: Can the Lancers Make Enough Threes To Keep Up?
Purdue vs Queens How To Watch
Date: Friday, March 20
Venue: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
Time: 7:35 pm ET
TV: truTV
Streaming: March Madness Live App, Paramount+, HBO Max
Teams: (2) Purdue 27-8, (15) Queens 21-13
Purdue Rankings: KenPom 8 | NET 9
Queens Rankings: KenPom 183 | NET 189
College Football Programs: Head coach Barry Odom is fighting the good fight to get Purdue up and going again, but it’ll keep struggling with another brutal schedule.
Queens University doesn’t play college football.
– CFN NCAA Tournament Schedule, Previews
Key Stats
– Purdue is No. 1 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, with a +2.25 per game.
– Queens doesn’t do anything on defense, allowing 83 points per game.
Why Queens Will Win: Unapologetically Keep Shooting
Queens doesn’t play defense, and it doesn’t have a prayer of slowing down Purdue inside or out.
The Royals will have to accept that the Boilermakers will move the ball around and generate plenty of easy baskets, but they’ll quickly come back down the court and fire off threes.
They average 85 points per game, will take close to 30 threes, and they have to keep bombing away and hope to go on enough mini-runs to balance out the steadiness of the Boilermaker scoring.
Why Purdue Will Win: Braden Smith Will Obliterate the NCAA Record
The great Purdue guard needs just one more assist to break former Duke star Bobby Hurley’s record of 1,076 career assists.
Queens isn’t too bad at providing pressure on opposing backcourts, but Smith will almost certainly get the NCAA record within the first few minutes, and he’ll blow past ten assists as he keeps feeding the Purdue offense for easy points.
The Lancers don’t come up with steals and will keep fouling – get used to the words, “and one.” Purdue isn’t normally a big free throw shooting team, but against the hacking Queens team, it will be.
Purdue vs Queens Prediction, Betting Lines
This will be worth keeping an eye on.
There’s a chance the Queens offense goes off against a Purdue defense that doesn’t do enough against three. Purdue has the ability to go cold once in a while, and Queens will keep shooting.
Purdue is 6-7 when allowing teams to hit at least nine threes. Queens has made nine threes 23 times, but in this, it won’t be enough.
Prediction: Purdue 92, Queens 66
Consensus Line: Purdue -25.5, o/u: 162.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Meet the NCAA Tournament Seeds
No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 | No. 4 | No. 5 | No. 6
No. 7 | No. 8 | No. 9 | No. 10 | No. 11
No. 12 | No. 13 | No. 14 | No. 15 | No. 16
Consensus Line from BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel. Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Related: Kansas vs California Baptist Prediction and Preview: NCAA Tournament First Round
This story was originally published by College Football News on Mar 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.