{"id":21638,"date":"2012-02-12T10:04:53","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T15:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21638"},"modified":"2012-02-12T10:04:53","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T15:04:53","slug":"college-basketball-preview-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-michigan-wolverines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-basketball-preview-illinois-fighting-illini-vs-michigan-wolverines-21638\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Preview: Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Michigan Wolverines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois Fighting Illini at No. 25 Michigan Wolverines
\nSunday, 2\/12\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 119
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 118.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Michigan Wolverines have won all 13 games inside the Crisler Center this season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illinois hits the road for the second consecutive game and looks to snap a two-game losing streak, which includes an 84-71 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers as 5.5-point underdogs.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re close,\u201d commented Fighting Illini head coach Bruce Weber.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to see if we can connect it all together.\u201d\u00a0 The Fighting Illini have tallied a 1-4 record in conference road games, while also dropping their last six away from home against ranked competition since Feb. 9, 2010.\u00a0 Illinois is 0-2 ATS as a road underdog of 3.5 to 6 points.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini have played a lot of close games this season, sitting just behind Gardner-Webb nationally in playing 12 games that have been decided by five points or less.\u00a0 Illinois had won four straight games in this series until dropping a 60-55 decision to Michigan in last year\u2019s Big Ten tournament.\u00a0 Brandon Paul is the player to watch offensively, ranking third in scoring during league play in averaging 19.4 points per game in those affairs.<\/p>\n

Michigan has been very inconsistent in alternating wins and losses over its last eight games, as it comes off a 62-46 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers as three-point home favorites.\u00a0 The Wolverines offense has been spotty at times, as the squad has relied upon a defensive unit that\u2019s allowed just 59.9 points over the last seven games.\u00a0 The program has registered a perfect 13-0 record at home this season and has won its last 14 games inside the Crisler Center.\u00a0 Michigan is 7-5 ATS as a favorite this season and the \u201cunder\u201d is 7-5 in those games.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines really got things going from beyond the arc against the Cornhuskers, hitting 11-of-24 shots from 3-point range, while knocking down 52.2 percent of all their shots from the floor.\u00a0 Michigan has two starters that average double figures in scoring, with junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. leading the way in averaging 14.3 points per game.\u00a0 The team is 72-85 all-time in this series, but has posted a solid 47-28 mark at home, winning two of three in Sunday\u2019s venue under the direction of current head coach John Beilein.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wolverines due to their 5-1 ATS mark as a home favorite of 6.5 points or less, while the Fighting Illini are 0-5 ATS on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois Fighting Illini at No. 25 Michigan Wolverines Sunday, 2\/12\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 119 Current Total:\u00a0 118.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Illinois hits the road for the second consecutive game and looks to snap a two-game losing streak, which includes an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3442,6417,6358,697,468,5803],"class_list":["post-21638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-brandon-paul","tag-crisler-center","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-tim-hardaway-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21640,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638\/revisions\/21640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}