NCAA Tournament Bracket: No. 5 Purdue vs. No. 12 Northern Iowa

When the Purdue Boilermakers and Northern Iowa Panthers square off on Thursday, Purdue coach Matt Painter could be feeling a case of deja vu. (AP Images)"]

Before coming to Purdue, Painter spent five seasons as an assistant and one year as head coach at Southern Illinois, one of Northern Iowa’s conference rivals.

In his lone season as Southern Illinois’ coach, Painter led the Salukis to the MVC regular-season title in 2003-04 before Northern Iowa won the conference tournament.

Now Painter gets another shot at the Panthers, but this time with his new team. The Boilermakers have been a disappointment this season. A lot experts picked Purdue to win the Big Ten and some even thought they were a sleeper Final Four squad.

The Panthers are entering the NCAA Tournament on a roll as they are winners of five straight.

Northern Iowa will be a dangerous first-round opponent, so don’t count on Purdue getting the Big Ten off to a good start. Be sure to get your NCAA basketball betting with Bodog before the big game!