The Wisconsin Badgers and the Illinois Fighting Illini will square off for the second time this season, and the Badgers are eager for the rematch. They were toppled in the last outing versus the Illini when they traveled to Champaign, Illinois, 86-80. This matchup will look different not simply because the Badgers are at home but because each team has played around 17 games since then, and each team has developed their style even more since their first meeting.
Injury Updates
Illinois and Wisconsin have both been running pretty injury-free lately. However, a big change happened for Illinois this week as it was announced that Morez Johnson Jr. is out indefinitely due to a broken wrist. He broke it on an athletic block during the Michigan State game.
Morez Johnson Jr. - OUT
There are currently zero Wisconsin injury updates.
Odds and Over/Under
FanDuel has Wisconsin as a 4.5 favorite over Illinois. They were 5.5 underdogs against Purdue as a reference point. That big win over the Boilermakers and playing at home in the Kohl Center is a big reason that the Badgers are favored by this margin. It started closer to 3.5 but the Johnson injury moved it.
The over/under is set at 160.5. This means that FanDuel is predicting the game to finish at Wisconsin 82 (.5) - Illinois 78.
Score Prediction
It does seem that Wisconsin is more settled into their identity as a basketball team this time around against Illinois and that the Illini are playing a bit up and down. They continue to have great games but also struggle at times in unique ways. In fact, against Michigan State, they finished the final 5 minutes of the game without scoring a point at all. This team can be excellent but also underwhelming. There's no consistency and it's hard to predict. However, I think Wisconsin will pull it out.