Nebraska vs Purdue odds shows the Husker doubters are lined up right on schedule

After a long week of watching the Big Ten Tournament unfold, the Nebraska basketball team returns to action on Friday night. The team that was predicted to finish in the bottom half of the conference proved a lot of doubters wrong. However, it's going to need to keep proving them wrong when it faces off against Purdue, as a less-than-impressive last month of the season has analysts and bettors overlooking the Huskers again.

After Purdue beat an upstart Northwestern on Thursday night, the Boilermakers and the Huskers will face off in a chance for revenge for Fred Hoiberg's group. When the two schools last met, Purdue took a big lead in the first half, but NU was able to chip away and eventually send the game to overtime.

Unfortunately, Nebraska lost in overtime to log its third loss in four games against Top 15 teams at the time. That might be why the Huskers enter Friday morning as 3.5-point underdogs according to FanDuel.

Nebraska basketball enters the Big Ten quarterfinals as underdogs despite the 2-seed

Considering Nebrasketball is the 2-seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and Purdue is the 7-seed, it's disconcerting for Hoiberg's squad to be solid underdogs. However, it's not surprising, especially considering how rarely NU makes real noise in the conference tournament.

Earlier odds also showed Nebraska had worse odds than Purdue to win the B1G Tourney. FanDuel had Michigan (-105) to win it all, followed by Illinois (+480), Purdue (+600), Michigan State (+650), and then the Huskers (+1000).

Nebraska has spent all season proving it's for real, and with only one loss to a non-Top 25 team and a 26-5 record, it's answered the call plenty of times. On Friday, it will get one more chance to prove it belongs with the big boys.