Illinois vs. Iowa
Free NCAAB Pick: Iowa +16.5 -110 odds
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While many eyes will be glued on the Iowa Hawkeyes football team in their bowl game tonight, their basketball team quietly provides a nice betting opportunity at this fat line when they visit the Illinois Fighting Illini.

The Illini are 9-5 straight up, but they appear to be overrated right now as they are just 4-9 against the spread. For further evidence that they are not as good as many people think, consider that while they are a perfect 8-0 SU at home this season, they are just 3-4 ATS in those games. They lost to Gonzaga as three-point favorites on Saturday, leaving them on an 0-4 ATS streak entering this contest tonight.

Now Iowa is just 5-9 on the year, but it is not as if they are getting blown out every night, as they are only losing their games vs. Division I opponents by an average of -2.4 points. The Hawkeyes are a deceptively good shooting team, as they rank 71 out of 347 teams in two-point field goal percentage at 51.5 percent. As long as they do not hoist up too many three-point shots unnecessarily here, there is no reason why they cannot hang within single-digits.

Now the Hawkeyes have lost two games by exactly 17 points this season vs. Northern Iowa and Wichita State respectively, but those are the only games they have lost by more than this posted spread, and they already survived meetings vs. a couple of ranked Big Ten teams in Purdue and Minnesota, in fact covering the number vs. the undefeated Boilermakers.

Finally, the road teams have historically done well in this head-to-head series, going 7-3 ATS in the last 10 meeting including both encounters last season. Iowa has lost the last two visits to Champaign by eight and four points respectively, and we simply do not see Illinois basically doubling that average winning margin here tonight.

CBB Free Pick: Iowa +16 (-110)

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