Illinois Fighting Illini vs Northwestern Wildcats Prediction, 1/7/2021 College Basketball Pick, Tips and Odds

Game: Illinois Fighting Illini vs Northwestern Wildcats

Date: Thursday, January 7, 2021

Location: Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, IL

TV: BTN

Odds/Point Spread: Illinois (-6.5)

Welsh-Ryan Arena is the venue where and the Northwestern Wildcats (6-3) will take on the Illinois Fighting Illini (8-3) on Thursday. Northwestern opens this matchup as 6.5-point underdogs. The over/under has been set at 148.5.

Illinois heads into this game with a mark of 8-3 for the season. They have an average of 85.4 points per game (21st in the nation) while connecting on 52.7% from the floor. The Fighting Illini are shooting 41.8% on 3-pointers (82 of 196) and 68.1% from the charity stripe. As a unit, Illinois is collecting 42.0 boards per contest and has accounted for 193 dimes on the campaign, which is 13th in the country in terms of passing. They turn it over 13.8 times per game and as a team are committing 18.5 personal fouls on a nightly basis. When they are on defense, the Fighting Illini are able to force 11.3 turnovers per contest while drawing 19.7 fouls. They are ranked 244th in college hoops in giving up assists to their opponents with 126 surrendered for the campaign. The Fighting Illini defense is allowing a FG percentage of 40.9% (278 of 679) and they relinquish 28.6 rebounds per game as a unit. They are conceding 31.1% on 3-pointers and they are ranked 160th in college hoops in points per game allowed (69.0).

The Illinois Fighting Illini took the court against the Purdue Boilermakers and notched a win by a score of 66-58 in their last game. Illinois ended having earned a 48.1% FG percentage (25 out of 52) and knocked down 7 of their 20 shots from beyond the arc. From the charity stripe, the Fighting Illini buried 9 of 22 tries for a percentage of 40.9%. When it comes to pulling down boards, they collected a total of 36 with 5 of them being offensive. They also dished out 17 assists for this game as well as having 6 steals and 6 blocked shots. With regard to defending, Illinois let their opponent shoot 48.1% from the field on 25 out of 52 shooting. Purdue earned 11 assists and had 3 steals for this game. Furthurmore, the Boilermakers snagged 32 rebounds (5 offensive, 27 defensive) and had 6 blocks. Purdue finished the contest at 58.3% from the charity stripe by converting 7 of their 12 tries. They also converted 7 out of their 16 tries from long range.

Kofi Cockburn is one player who played a role for the game. He walked away with 14 points on 7 out of 9 shooting. He was on the hardwood for 29 mins and also pulled down 10 boards. Cockburn ended up going 77.8% from the field and also recorded 2 assists. Someone else that was a major contributor in this contest for the Fighting Illini was Ayo Dosunmu. He pulled down 5 rebounds and had 3 assists. He went 38.5% from the floor for this contest by going 5-of-13 (12 points). When the game finished, Dosunmu played 35 min.

Northwestern has a win-loss mark of 6-3 this year. Northwestern has accounted for 735 points on the season (81.7 per game) and they average 37.3 boards per game. The Wildcats have committed 16.4 fouls every game and they shoot 73.9% from the free throw line. As an offensive unit, the Wildcats are shooting 47.3% from the field, which has them ranked 84th in the nation. Their rate of assisting teammates is at 18.7 times per contest (15th in college basketball) and they cough up possession 10.6 times per contest. The Wildcats on defense are ranked 122nd in D-1 in points allowed per contest with 67.6. The Northwestern defense allows 31.4% on shots from beyond the perimeter (69 of 220) and their opponents are connecting on 67.8% of their free throw shots. They allow 15.0 assists and 34.2 rebounds every game, which has them ranked 281st and 135th in the country. They are able to force 12.1 turnovers on a nightly basis and have let teams shoot 40.3% from the field (79th in the nation).

For their last game, the Northwestern Wildcats took a loss by a score of 85-66 when they faced the Michigan Wolverines. The Wildcats were able to pull down 21 defensive boards and 5 offensive rebounds for a total of 26 for the matchup. They also stuffed 2 tries while recording 2 steals in this matchup. The Wolverines were called for 15 fouls for the matchup which took the Wildcats to the free throw line for a total of 12 attempts. They were able to knock down 9 of those for a percentage of 75.0%. Pertaining to shots from 3-point land, Northwestern buried 5 out of 18 tries (27.8%). When the final whistle was blown, the Wildcats finished the game shooting 26 out of 63 from the floor which gave them a rate of 41.3%. The Wildcats permitted the Wolverines to knock down 32 out of their 64 attempts from the field which left them with a rate of 50.0% for this contest. They finished shooting 44.4% from three-point range by connecting on 12 of 27 and finished the game at 9 of 14 at the free throw line (64.3%). When talking about rebounding, Northwestern permitted Michigan to grab 41 in all (12 on the offensive glass).

Robbie Beran was important for the Wildcats in this game. He made 6 of 10 for this game giving him a field goal percentage of 60.0%, which had him sitting at 14 points. Beran pulled down 2 boards in his 20 mins and accounted for 2 assists for this contest. Another guy that was important for Northwestern was Miller Kopp. He totaled 13 points in his 33 minutes on the hardwood by going 6 of 14 from the floor in this contest. Kopp wrapped this one up going 42.9% from the floor and also contributing 2 dimes and 4 rebounds.

So what is Tonights Parlay prediction?

Parlay's Pundit's Pick: Take Northwestern (+6.5) and over 148.5 points

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