Dec 9, 20233 min read

Illinois vs Tennessee Plugs Prediction - College Basketball Picks 12/9/23

- Tennessee Volunteers (5-3) vs Illinois Fighting Illini (7-1)

This is looking to be a great game to start off this beautiful college basketball Saturday! We have The Illinois Fighting Illini, who are on a 5-game winning streak, going head to head with The Tennessee Volunteers who will be out for blood today after losing 3 of their last 4 games. Lets look into both these teams and preview this game and find a winning prediction. Keep reading and I will see you at the window after the game!

( Pic - NCAA.com )

The Tennessee Volunteers just got a win over George Mason last game but did take tough losses to Kansas and North Carolina prior to that. This Tennessee squads offense is averaging over 77 points per game and their defense is giving up 66 points per game. I'm very high on Dalton Knecht this year. He is averaging 19 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and has a ton of talent and potential with this team. Tennessee also has Josiah-Jordan James, who is averaging 11.6 points and 1.6 assists per game, and is another big part of this team. The Volunteers are shooting 33.2% from beyond the arc and 76.1% from the free throw line. I was big on This Tennessee team coming into the season because I know this team is good and has plenty of talent, but they have some issues that need to be worked out soon or they might continue to struggle in games like this one here.

( Pic - NCAA.com )

This Illinois squad has in fact been the Fighting Illini to start this year! This team looks great so far this year. We have seen them run through teams like Valparaiso, Southern, Western Illinois, Rutgers and just handled a really solid FAU team during this streak their on. This Fighting Illini offense is averaging 80 points per game and their defense is only giving up 62 points per game. They also have one of the best players in the nation on their team in Terrence Shannon Jr, who is averaging over 21 points per game and 4 rebounds! This team also has Marcus Domask, who is averaging over 12 points per game and 5 rebounds. This Illinois team is shooting 33.5% from beyond the arc and 62.5% from the free throw line. This team has done nothing but impress me this year and I have no reason to think they won't impress me here also.

💎 ILLINOIS +7.5 -115 ( 1u )

💎 ILLINOIS ML +235 ( .5U )

This is going to be a fun game to watch! It's no secret that I'm big on Tennessee this year, but when it comes to capping and giving people picks I'm 100% always going to be honest about the situation no matter how much I like a certain team. Now I understand that Tennessee is obviously going to get all the love from the odds makers and most likley the public because they're at home. I just cannot agree on this line and can't figure out why Illinois is getting so many points. I don't care about home court here, if you been watching these teams this season then you know just as much as I do that this Illinois team is just as talented as Tennessee and are playing the better basketball coming into this game. We also have to accept the fact that Illinois will have the best player on the court in this game with Terrence Shannon. Seriously people, did we not just see what Illinois did to a really solid FAU team a few days ago? Also, Tennessee had chances to prove who they are and what their about this year against three ranked teams in a row and came up short in every game in my opinion. So yeah, I will gladly take all these points with Illinois here to get us a easy cash and possibly pull a upset!