{"id":26803,"date":"2012-12-22T08:43:54","date_gmt":"2012-12-22T13:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=26803"},"modified":"2012-12-22T08:43:54","modified_gmt":"2012-12-22T13:43:54","slug":"missouri-tigers-vs-illinois-fighting-illini-braggin-rights-2012-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/missouri-tigers-vs-illinois-fighting-illini-braggin-rights-2012-predictions-26803\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Tigers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini: Braggin’ Rights 2012 Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missouri Tigers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
\nSaturday, 12\/22\/12, 6:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -1.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -1.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 140
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 142.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Illinois Fighting Illini will try to snap a three-game losing streak to the Missouri Tigers Saturday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the third consecutive season Missouri and Illinois enter the Bud Light Braggin\u2019 Rights Game nationally ranked, but only one of the teams has won the last three games in this series.\u00a0 The Tigers haven\u2019t lost to the Fighting Illini since the 2008-09 campaign, as it picked up a 78-74 victory as seven-point favorites in last year\u2019s meeting, while going OVER the posted total of 140.\u00a0 Missouri is 10-7 ATS on a neutral floor the last two-plus seasons, with the OVER going 12-3 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Tigers rank first nationally in grabbing 46.1 rebounds per game, while sitting fourth in rebounding margin (+13.3).\u00a0 Missouri has three starters averaging in double figures, with senior forward Laurence Bowers leading the way, scoring 16.3 points and grabbing 6.4 rebounds per game.\u00a0 The program has won 24 consecutive games in the month of December, while head coach Frank Haith has captured seven of nine games on a neutral floor during his time on campus.<\/p>\n

Illinois has won 13 of 18 games in this series when playing as a ranked team, while owning a 20-11 overall advantage over one of its fiercest rivals when playing in St. Louis.\u00a0 The Fighting Illini are coming off a 66-53 victory over Eastern Kentucky as 14.5-point home favorites, while going UNDER the posted total of 133.5.\u00a0 First-year head coach John Groce knows the importance of this game and what his team needs to do to remain undefeated.\u00a0 \u201cThe biggest thing is rebounding,\u201d stated Groce this week.\u00a0 Illinois is 5-9 ATS on a neutral floor since 2010, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your college basketball picks against the spread.<\/p>\n

With 12 victories, the Fighting Illini have the most wins in Division I college basketball as of Dec. 18, which is an impressive feat with a new leader on the sidelines.\u00a0 Illinois is led by one of the more complete players in the country, with Brandon Paul averaging 18.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists.\u00a0 He joined by two other guards to account for 54.4 percent of the team\u2019s scoring this year.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely play the total in this affair, as the OVER is 17-5 when the Fighting Illini tip off as an underdog over the last two-plus seasons.<\/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":"

Missouri Tigers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini Saturday, 12\/22\/12, 6:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -1.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -1.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 140 Current Total:\u00a0 142.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker For the third consecutive season Missouri and Illinois enter the Bud Light Braggin\u2019 Rights Game nationally ranked, but only one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":26018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[6417,3863,697,7234,7258,433],"class_list":["post-26803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-brandon-paul","tag-frank-haith","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-john-groce","tag-laurence-bowers","tag-missouri-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803","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=26803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26804,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions\/26804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}