Ohio State basketball vs. Illinois: Prediction, best bets

The Ohio State basketball team is back at it today coming off a win against Iowa over the weekend. In that win, they were able to break a losing streak of five games with that win. Hopefully, they can start a winning streak with a win tonight at 7 pm.

It won’t be easy. The Fighting Illini are 9-2 at home and the Buckeyes are just 1-4 on the road so far this season. It’s not been a good month of January so far, but the Buckeyes need some road wins to get their resume back to NCAA Tournament level.

Ohio State basketball vs. Illinois: Best bets

Illinois is a 3.5-point favorite over Ohio State right now according to FanDuel. The total for the game sits at 145.5. I think the over is a good way to go with this one, regardless of who you take to win the game. Ohio State’s one road win was in the state of Illinois.

If you decide to take the Buckeyes, I also like the odds to take them to win the first half. If you parlay them to win the first half and the game, you get +240 odds on that. Ohio State doesn’t close games well, so they’re going to have to have a lead of a sizable margin in order to win.

Ohio State basketball vs. Illinois: Prediction

Even though the Buckeyes got a win against Iowa on Saturday, I don’t see that momentum carrying over. We still don’t know what the availability of Zed Key is for this game after he suffered a knee injury at the end of that game. I fear he may miss this one.

I think Illinois wins this game and the cover the spread. Give me the Illini 79-72. I hope I’m wrong about this though!