Indiana Hoosiers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
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Big Ten betting rivals mix it up on Saturday afternoon in Champagne, and college basketball wagering fans won’t want to miss any of the action! The Illinois Fighting Illini (13-8, 7-13 ATS) will look to help resurrect their fleeting NCAA Tournament hopes at the expense of the Indiana Hoosiers (9-10, 8-10-1 ATS). Illinois’ three-game losing streak became a thing of the past on Wednesday night when it won in Happy Valley 77-67 against Penn State. Sunday’s 58-43 loss at Iowa was the most embarrassing defeat of the season for HC Tom Crean and the Hoosiers, especially considering the fact that they had strung together back-to-back conference wins leading up to that point.

Indiana knows that it has a work in progress on the court right now. No one is expecting Crean to work miracles as he tries to reconstruct a program that was decimated over the last several seasons. Sophomore G Verdell Jones III is clearly going to be the future of this program at some point. He has filled in admirably for injured G Maurice Creek, scoring 16.3 points per game in Big Ten play. However, especially since Creek was lost for the season to a knee injury, this isn’t exactly an offensively proficient club. The Hoosiers are scoring just 69.5 points per game this year.

You hate talking about “must win games” in January, but this is one that Illinois just can’t lose. It’s clearly still in need of a lot of wins to try to return to the NCAA Tournament, and the Selection Committee won’t look kindly upon a loss at home to one of the worst sides in the conference. Expect big games from the men in the paint for the Illini. C Mike Tisdale (11.8 points, 6.0 rebounds per game) and F Mike Davis (10.9 points, 9.2 rebounds per game) combined to haul in 20 boards in the first meeting between these two teams, and they could both be in for large rebounding efforts once again. Tisdale shot 7/11 from the field and 13/14 from the charity stripe to give him a game-high 27 points that night.

Illinois needed a huge second half rally to knock off the Hoosiers in Bloomington back on January 9th. Even though the 66-60 win wasn’t good enough to beat the CBB gambling line, it did mark the third straight SU victory for the Illini in this series.

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