Feb 242 min read

Iowa vs Illinois Plugs Prediction - College Basketball Picks 2/24/24

- Illinois (19-7) vs Iowa (16-11)

The Iowa Hawkeyes and Illinois Fighting Illini face off in a Saturday college basketball showdown at the State Farm Center. Let’s look at the betting angles and preview this matchup and give a free prediction.

( Pic - NCAA.com )

This Iowa team has been looking pretty good if you ask me! Iowa has now had back-to-back impressive wins, but they still need to continue to keep this form going and they need to win games if they want to win the NCAA Tournament. We see two games ago against Wisconsin, they won 88-86 and in the last game against Michigan State they won 78-71. Payton Sandfort had a strong game putting up 22 points, six rebounds, and two assists. Iowa is averaging 83 points per game but my issue is their defense that is giving up 78 points per game. The offense is ranked 15th, but the defense has been a big problem for this team and I'm not sure if they can keep up winning games while playing such bad defense!

( Pic - NCAA.com )

Illinois in the last game faced off against Penn State and they ended up losing 90-69. At halftime they were up 48-41, but in the second half, the defense gave up 49 points. Terrence Shannon Jr had a strong game putting up 35 points and 11 rebounds but it wasn’t enough with the defense. Illinois on the season is averaging 83.3 points while their defnese is giving up 71.5 points per game. The offense is ranked 16th in college basketball, but in the last game the offense didn’t make up for the bad defense. Shannon Jr is averaging 22 points while shooting 47.6 percent from the field.

💎 IOWA +9.5 -110 ( 1u )

I know that Iowa hasn’t been great on the road and they have had issues this season, but they still have a whole lot of confidence right now and should be feeling good coming into this game. In Iowa's last game these boys put up 78 points and this offense has been electric and I think they are going to have no issue running up the score in this game. I know Iowans defense has been bad this year but Illinois defense was also awful in their last game and I think they are going to really struggle to defend this Iowa offense today. Iowa’s offense should be enough to keep them in this game and it should allow the Hawkeyes to cover the spread for us here!!
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