Illinois Fighting Illini vs Michigan State Spartans Prediction, Picks and Game Preview - 02/19/2022

Game Time: 12:00 pm ET, Saturday, February 19, 2022

Venue:  Breslin Center, East Lansing, MI

Where to Watch:  ESPN

DraftKings:  Point Spread:  Illinois -2, MSU +2; Over/Under:  139.5 points

Bet365:  Point Spread:  Illinois -1.5, MSU +1.5; Over/Under:  139.5 points

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  Illinois -1.5, MSU +1.5; Over/Under:  139.5 points

 

Illinois Fighting Illini:  18-7 (1st place, Big Ten)

Michigan State Spartans:  18-7 (6th place, Big Ten)

 

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Illinois Fighting Illini:  3-2 last 5

Michigan State Spartans:  2-3 last 5

 

 

 

Illinois is coming into this game with an 18-7 record overall and they are 5-4 in their road games this season where they will be in this game. This will be their 16th conference matchup of the year and they are currently 11-4 in their conference games this season. They have lost 2 of their last 3 games and are coming into this one off of a loss in their last game. Their last win was against the Northwestern Wildcats while their 2 losses in that span came against the Purdue Boilermakers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in their last game. Kofi Cockburn led the team in points in that game with 20 while Trent Frazier was next on the team with 11 points. André Curbelo led the team in assists in that game off the bench with 5 while Cockburn led the team in rebounds with 10. They were 37.9% from the field, 26.1% from 3-point range, and 56.3% from the free throw line with their shooting in that game. Their offense is averaging 75.9 PPG and their defense is allowing their opponents to average 66.4 PPG against them. Illinois has an ATS record of 11-14 this season and their O/U record is 14-11.

 

 

MSU is coming into this game with an 18-7 record overall and they are 10-2 in their home games this season where they will be in this game. This will be the 15th conference matchup on their schedule this year and they are currently 9-5 in their conference games this season. They have lost 3 of their last 4 games and are coming into this one off of a loss in their last game. Their last win was against the Indiana Hoosiers while their 3 losses in that span came against the Rutgers Scarlet knights, the Wisconsin Badgers, and the Penn State Nittany Lions in their last game. Julius Marble led the team in points in that game off the bench with 14 while Max Christie was next on the team with 10 points. AJ Hoggard led the team in assists in that game with 5 while Marble led the team in rebounds with 8. They were 41.8% from the field, 31.3% from 3-point range, and 70% from the free throw line with their shots in that game. Their offense is averaging 72.7 PPG and their defense is allowing their opponents to average 66.1 PPG against them. MSU has an ATS record of 13-12 this season and their O/U record is 12-12-1.

 

Illinois has been struggling coming into this game with losses in 2 of their last 3 games. Both of those losses came on the road where they are 5-4 this season and they have been playing very well against conference opponents with an 11-4 record. Those 2 losses were against the ranked Purdue team and Rutgers who has been very hot taking down 4 straight ranked opponents as an unranked team. MSU has not been as good against conference opponents this season at 9-5 but they are 10-2 at home. They have lost 3 of their last 4 games though and 2 of those losses came against unranked teams. They have been much better at home recently though and have won 2 of their last 3 games by double digits. Illinois is a very good team though and this will likely be a close game between the two. Illinois has the better team here and have been playing better recently but they will only win this game by a few points.

 

Illinois Michigan State Prediction:  Our NCAAB Pick for Saturday, February 19, 2022 (12:00 pm ET start time) is Illinois 71 MSU 67.

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Illinois Fighting Illini: 12-7 ATS when the line is +3 to -3. 13-6 UNDER when the line is +3 to -3. 137-95 UNDER in road games.

Michigan State Spartans: 12-19 ATS after playing 5 consecutive games as favorite. 12-4 UNDER after a combined score of 125 points or less. 32-22 UNDER against conference opponents.

 

 

Illinois Fighting Illini:  A. Hutcherson (G) out for season - Hernia.

Michigan State Spartans:  None.

 

 

"All the credit in the world to them. That was something my team hasn't seen in a long, long time ... They deserve all the credit. We had no life, no spirit and no fight." - Brad Underwood on his team’s loss against Rutgers.

 

 

"When we had some letdowns, they were major letdowns. Pretty tough loss for us, but we got what we deserved." - Tom Izzo on his team’s loss against Penn State.

 

 

 

K. Cockburn

T. Frazier 

J. Grandison 

A. Plummer

D. Williams

 

M. Bingham 

G. Brown 

Max Christie 

J. Hauser 

T. Walker

 

 

PPG: K. Cockburn (21.4)

APG: T. Frazier (4)

Reb/G: K. Cockburn (11.3)

 

PPG: G. Brown (12.1)

APG: A. Hoggard (5)

RPG: M. Bingham Jr. (6.3)

 

Coaches:

Illinois Fighting Illini: Brad Underwood (5th season)

Michigan State Spartans: Tom Izzo (27th season)