Illinois vs Purdue -6 or -7 O/U 132
I don’t know why people do not see it here with Illinois. The Illini are a fantastic team this year, and they will be dancing due to some huge wins vs Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin and Rutgers. They also took Maryland to the wire in Baltimore. Purdue this year is a shell of themselves who have shown flashes beating Michigan State, Minnesota and Virginia at home, but they have some other bad losses including Texas, Nebraska and, yes you know it, Illinois by 25 points. Now people are going to look at this as a revenge game but I am not sure that Purdue can do that. They do not matchup well vs the Illini because Illinois also have some big guys down low like 7 footer Kofi Cockburn and 6’9 Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Illinois also has better guard play than Purdue and will most likely win that battle. Illinois has proven that they can win on the road when they beat Wisconsin a few weeks back. This spread is too large for this match-up and I like it at least all the way down to 3.
Illinois +6 – 2 star and sprinkle
Florida vs LSU -2 to -2.5 O/U 145
This is a spot play more than anything. LSU isn’t as good as they were last year but they have beaten some good teams in Arkansas, Mississippi State, Liberty and Tennessee. Their only home loss was a hiccup back in December vs East Tennessee State. They have a fantastic offense under Will Wake ranking 5th in efficiency and 5th in 2 point shots. Florida on the other hand is a pretty average power 5 team across the board. They have a better defense than LSU but their offensive efficiency ranks only 39th. The key thing for me is that this spread is below 3 points and it is a let down spot for Florida after beating Auburn at home. Auburn shot a horrid 25% that day and I think that any top 100 team would have beaten them shooting like that. Florida’s bad losses all come on the road this year and I think that they will let down vs the Tigers.
LSU -2 – 2 star premium shared
