{"id":26564,"date":"2012-12-07T19:05:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-08T00:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=26564"},"modified":"2012-12-07T19:05:47","modified_gmt":"2012-12-08T00:05:47","slug":"illinois-fighting-illini-vs-gonzaga-bulldogs-college-basketball-betting-odds-and-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/illinois-fighting-illini-vs-gonzaga-bulldogs-college-basketball-betting-odds-and-picks-26564\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Gonzaga Bulldogs: College Basketball Betting Odds and Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 13 Illinois Fighting Illini at No. 10 Gonzaga Bulldogs
\nSaturday, 12\/8\/12, 10:00 PM EST, TV: ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Gonzaga -11.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Gonzaga -11.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 139.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 143.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Gonzaga Bulldogs have lost two straight meetings with the Illinois Fighting Illini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illinois is off to a 9-0 start under first-year head coach John Groce, as Saturday night\u2019s game inside the McCarthey Athletic Center feature two of the 18 remaining unbeaten teams in Division I college basketball.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s a great environment,\u201d commented Groce about the upcoming situation.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting challenge, a national TV game against a top 10 team.\u201d\u00a0 The Fighting Illini enter this game off a 72-64 win over Western Carolina as 18-point home favorites.\u00a0 Illinois is 1-9 ATS in its last 10 road games versus a team with a winning home record.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini might be a team to fade when making your college basketball picks against the spread this weekend, as they\u2019ve lost their last nine road games versus ranked opponents.\u00a0 Illinois has managed to win its last six non-conference road games away from home, which includes a 78-77 overtime victory over Hawaii on Nov. 16.\u00a0 Offensively, the team leads the nation in total 3-point field goals made, averaging 10.8 makes per game.<\/p>\n

Gonzaga has enjoyed a great beginning to the 2012-13 campaign in winning its first nine games, but the team has failed to cover the spread in its last two contests, which includes a 71-69 win over Washington State as 11.5-point road favorites.\u00a0 The Bulldogs were led by their bigs in that affair, with Elias Harris and Kelly Olynyk combining for 45 points.\u00a0 \u201cWe gave game balls to both of these guys,\u201d commented Bulldogs coach Mark Few after the game.\u00a0 Gonzaga is 8-3 ATS in its last 11 non-conference games, which is important to consider when looking over the college basketball odds page.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have lost the last two meetings in this series, while the OVER has cashed in three of four games since 2004.\u00a0 Gonzaga has dropped four straight home games against ranked, non-conference opponents, which may allow Illinois to sneak under this double-digit spread.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Fighting Illini due to their 4-1 ATS mark versus West Coast Conference opponents, while Bulldogs are 3-7-1 ATS off a spread loss.<\/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":"

No. 13 Illinois Fighting Illini at No. 10 Gonzaga Bulldogs Saturday, 12\/8\/12, 10:00 PM EST, TV: ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Gonzaga -11.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Gonzaga -11.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 139.5 Current Total:\u00a0 143.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Illinois is off to a 9-0 start under first-year head coach John Groce, as Saturday night\u2019s game inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":25999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[1203,1202,697,7234,768,5729,3888],"class_list":["post-26564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-elias-harris","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-john-groce","tag-mark-few","tag-mccarthey-athletic-center","tag-west-coast-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26564","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=26564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26565,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26564\/revisions\/26565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}