Illinois is one of a handful of teams that would have liked postseason bids to be handed out in mid December. Since then they have lost 6 times, some good and some not so good, as they struggle to find their level in a very competitive Big Ten Conference. <\/p>\n
Illinois Fighting Illini (15-6) vs #13 Michigan State Spartans(17-4)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Stats<\/a> | Gambling Insight!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s Picks Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The truth is they were probably never as as good as their ranking suggested after they upset Gonzaga. \u00a0Still some of their losses have been head scratchers.<\/p>\n In guard Brandon Paul the Illini have a player who can win or lose a game for you. \u00a0He has scored 20 or more points 8 times this season but he needs the ball in his hands so much that it can be disruptive to the flow of their offense and when he is not sinking baskets his overall game suffers too. \u00a0<\/p>\n Guard D.J Richardson is also a nice talent but he always seem to leave you wanting more and has difficult assuming a lead role.<\/p>\n Illinois has killed bettors in conference play going just 2-5 ATS, including two games they lost outright as favourites. \u00a0That won\u2019t be the case at MSU which is probably a good thing. \u00a0They probably won\u2019t win but might be able to develop a little toughness from this game against a serious Spartan team.<\/p>\n The Spartans may not be collecting style points but they are collecting wins in the Big Ten. \u00a0After losing their conference opener to Minnesota they rattled off 6 straight before losing at Indiana, a contest they easily could have one. \u00a0This has to be one of the toughest teams in the country as the talent level is not brimming.[ad-6571516] \u00a0They probably haven\u2019t hit their ceiling yet either as Tom Izzo teams usually continue to develop as the season goes on.<\/p>\n I still don\u2019t whether point guard Keith Appling is good or a serious disappointment. \u00a0I like him as a winner but as a leading scorer he is not fantastic as he often goes stretches where he is kind of invisible offensively. \u00a0In those absences Branden Dawson is looking better and better. \u00a0He has a great build, chipping in both scoring and rebounding for the Spartans. \u00a0They might look inside more than usual against Illinois who doesn\u2019t have a lot to compete with Adrien Payne and Derrick Nix.<\/p>\n Michigan State is 12-0 at home this season but just 3-5-1 against the number. \u00a0They have played some ugly ones which because they are such a public team is a recipe for wagering failure. \u00a0-9 against Illinois seems like a pretty strong number as they are not likely to throttle a team that has their level of talent. \u00a0Just 2 of their conference wins have been by 9 point or more.<\/p>\n Spread Pick: Michigan State -9 Fighting Illini vs Spartans CBB Basketball Spread\/Handicapping Illinois is one of a handful of teams that would have liked postseason bids to be handed out in mid December. Since then they have lost 6 times, some good and some not so good, as they struggle to find their level in a very competitive Big Ten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":23346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[6986,1477,4631,36434,2954,36437,7836,4210,4694],"class_list":["post-59666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-cbb-free-picks","tag-cbb-picks","tag-college-basketball-odds","tag-fighting-illini-vs-spartans","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-michigan-st-spartans","tag-michigan-st-spartans","tag-ncaa-basketball-lines","tag-ncaa-hoops-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59666"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59679,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666\/revisions\/59679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Thursday January 31<\/strong>
\n Breslin Center – East Lansing, MI<\/strong>
\n 7:00PM<\/strong>
\nMoneyline: \u00a0No ML currently listed at Sportsbook.ag<\/a><\/strong>
\n Spread: \u00a0Michigan State -9<\/strong>
\n O\/U: \u00a0132<\/strong><\/p>\nIllinois<\/h3>\n
CLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert CBB Hoops Picks for 2013 GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
Michigan State<\/h3>\n
\nO\/U Pick: Over
\nScore Prediction: Michigan State 75 – Illinois 65<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"