Illinois vs Maryland College Basketball Predictions and Odds Jan 21
Illinois vs Maryland Betting Preview
WagerTalk college basketball capper Tony Finn offers his Illinois vs Maryland betting preview for Friday, January 21. At the time of posting, the Fighting illini have opened as a 4.5-point road favorite over the home Terrapins, with the total sitting at 137 points.
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| Friday, January 21 | Big Ten Basketball Betting Notes |
|---|---|
| Point Spread: | Illinois Fighting Illini -4.5 vs Maryland Terrapins |
| Total: | 137 Points |
| Game Time: | 7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT |
| Arena: | XFINITY Center in College Park, MD |
| TV: | FS1 |
Illinois vs Maryland Analysis
BREAKING NEWS: “Illinois will be without Kofi Cockburn for Friday’s game at Maryland with the All-American center in concussion protocol,” per The News-Gazette. “The 7-footer did not make the trip to College Park, Md., with the No. 17 Illini.”
Friday night lights college basketball-style finds a key matchup in the Big 10 Conference tonight. The No. 17 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini (13-4, 6-1 Big Ten) travel to the eastern seaboard to oppose the Maryland Terrapins (9-9, 1-6).
This past Monday, the top-20 matchup between Illinois and Purdue ranks as one of the more entertaining and informative Big 10 events of the 2021-22 season. The Fighting Illini faithful perceived the game as a lost opportunity. All things equal, the positives and visual eye-candy of who the Illini are compared to who they can become with the return of BVB is better late than never. The loss to Purdue should be looked at as a positive and a game that presented the program with opportunities and options.
The sudden resignation and departure of longstanding former head coach Mark Turgeon will pause any growth in the Maryland basketball program. Unattainable expectations weigh more than they should and often are placed on the back of the undeserving. Turgeon’s decision to resign wasn’t all his own, and the program’s preseason top-25 ranking in the polls wasn’t possible for Turgeon to live up to or his squad to play like.
The overnight rumors about NBA-ready Kofi Cockburn would possibly not make the trip to the Xfinity Center for tonight’s game against Maryland were confirmed this morning. Cockburn is in concussion protocol and did not travel to Maryland for tonight’s game, per WagerTalk News-Gazzette sources.
When the WagerTalk editors published this betting preview, the Circa Race and Sportsbook had already made 14 changes to the overnight numbers in this Big 10 matchup—posted at roughly 10:00 pm ET. As a result, the Fighting Illini and Maryland Terps’ game numbers have experienced a make-over in less than 10 hours since they posted the overnights. Illinois, who opened as 8-point road chalk, had been moved to the Illini being 4-point road favorites with the total moving over 4-points, from 141.5 to 137.0.
The Fighting Illini are 7-2 against the spread across their previous nine lined-games as a favorite. When positioned as the home underdog, the Maryland Terrapins check in with a 1-5 ATS mark in their last six games. The games point total trends find the Over cashing at an 8-3 clip in the Fighting Illini’s last 11 games as an overall game favorite. And the Illini had gone over the closing bookmakers total in all of the squads’ previous five games when the books closed the Terps as the game underdog.
Fighting Illini Stronger and More Skilled Than Terps
Purdue senior guard Sasha Stefanovic scored 22 points leading the No. 4 ranked Purdue Boilermakers over No. 17 Illinois by a 96-88 final score on Monday. The Illinois dynamic guard duo of Andre Curbelo and Alfonso Plummer worked their magic in the last seconds of regulation, followed that work up with enough production to turn the first overtime into a second extra period that eventually saw the Boilermakers pull away for the win.
“They’re the best basketball team we’ve played,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood told the national media in his post-game presser. “And then I thought Sasha was elite today. We’ve done a pretty good job on him, for the most part, the last few years, and today he was the difference,” added Underwood.
The return of Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk is enough to make this Illinois squad the best in the Big 10. The Fighting Illini showed who they can be without BBV, and now they have the opportunity to close the regular season, showing college basketball who they are with Bosmans-Verdonk.
BBV offered the Illini the ability to refrain from asking Kofi Cockburn to play softly in the paint. However, with Cockburn out for tonight’s game, there will be no backing off the physical gameplan of coach Underwood.
Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk issued the Illini a total of 20 minutes of court time. What he gave more than just minutes were priceless. BVB was sharp in his return to active duty. The Illini big won more 50-50 balls than he lost; he made crips and well-placed passes and was a pest defensively.
Before breaking the format of this game preview and spending five pages on where BVB has come from and where it appears he is going is a 60-minute story.
The news and the status of Andre Curbelo being available to play for the first time since late November was a second positive. The belief that Curbelo would be eased back into his former role was debunked. Instead, Curbelo was all-in and gave his all-out in the loss to Purdue. With Cockburn missing tonight’s game while in the concussion protocol, any minute restriction on Curbello will all have to do with the score in the final 10-minutes of tonight’s matchup.
Curbelo showed no signs of rust and silenced all the doubters that tried to say that the Illini were better off without him. Without his elite play down the stretch and his electric playmaking, there is no chance this game would have been close.
Illinois lost to Purdue on Monday but showed the size of the team’s heart despite not having their best player for the most important parts of the game. Without Kofi on the court, the Illini made terrific adjustments and a gameplan that was good enough not just to win, but work didn’t go down softly.
Illinois has a chance to become the best of the Big 10 or resign themselves to being a team only willing to lay it on the line when the results are already known. The Illini need to be more disciplined inside the overall game plan and be composed regardless of the situation.
Danny and The Terrapins Are in a Significant Mismatch
Maryland named assistant Danny Manning, a longtime high school and college coach. At the same time, Danny was a former No. 1 overall NBA draft pick, a college national champion, and a Wake Forest head coach was selected to fill in as the Terps coach upon Turgeon’s resignation. Manning will serve as the interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Maryland has a 3-2 record in Manning’s first five games. The Terps defeated then-No. 20th ranked Florida Gators under Manning’s watch, but they have lost their first two Big ten league matchups. Eric Ayala has scored at least 19 points in each of the last four games, and his shooting has improved by leaps and bounds. Ayala is shooting 46 percent from beyond the arc across the previous four games.
Ayala is the unquestioned leader of the Terps, and their results have generally followed however he has played this year. However, Ayala also missed this game last year with a groin injury, so he’ll be motivated to lead the team to add to its streak against the Illini. The most interesting in-game drama will occur in the first minute of tonight’s Big Ten featured event.
Will coach Manning employ the same gameplan that former coach Turgeon used for the last two seasons to register a fourth straight win over the Illini? Illinois will play tonight’s game with only a one-day break after the Minnesota game. Furthermore, they have had no proper conditioning after the COVID pause.
Illinois vs Maryland Prediction
You won’t get an argument from the reasonable; the Fighting Illini is the bigger, the stronger, and the team that should win this matchup between Underwood and Manning, even without the Illini having the services of Cockburn in the paint.
The Illini are equipped with both the physical attributes and the game plan to take the Terps, and The Illinois halfcourt offensive sets tonight to start with the bigs in the paint and end with the bigs. In all seven of its Big Ten games, the Terps have been outscored in the paint. Make that all eight after tonight’s Illinois victory in D.C.
Save Austin Hutcherson – out for the season with a sports hernia – the Illini were on the verge of returning to full health for the first time this season. Andre Curbelo was back to active duty for the first time in almost two months, and the earth appeared to be back on its axis for the Illinois faithful.
Curbelo and Cockburn only played together for 90 seconds, and Purdue coach Matt Painter and his staff had the luxury of essentially facing the Illini without Cockburn, just as Maryland will tonight.
Unlike Maryland, the Boilermakers had the muscle to out-punch the Illini. Unfortunately, this is an attribute that coach Manning and the Terps do not roster.
The WagerTalk pick to click is a play on the Illini minus the slight handicap in a straight up win and cover versus Maryland. Even without Cockburn, all of the metrics speak to Underwood’s team being the better squad over 40 minutes, and that school of thought is the most reasonable and most likely to be the case when all is said and done tonight at the Xfinity Center.
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Illinois vs Maryland Preview from GoldSheet
NCAAB Stat Sheet
Each day, WagerTalk handicapper Ralph Michaels puts together his College Basketball Stat Sheet, which offers a head-to-head comparison for how teams are performing in a number of key areas heading into a game. Check out Friday’s sheet, with notes on tonight’s Illinois vs Maryland contest.
Happy Hour Tip-Off Show
Get your daily fix of college hoops betting information with Joe Raineri and a rotating panel of handicapping guests. The Happy Hour Tip-Off Show will broadcast Monday through Friday at 1:45pm ET / 10:45am PT. Pull up a barstool and join us as we break down tonight’s college basketball card, including this Illinois vs Maryland clash, from a sports betting perspective.
WagerTalk Live Odds Screen
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