WagerTalk college basketball handicapper Tokyo Brandon offers his Marquette vs Illinois betting preview for Monday, November 15 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the time of posting, the No. 11 Illini are an 8-point road favorite over the Golden Eagles, with the total at 146.5 points.<\/p>\n
Stay on top of the latest College Basketball<\/a>\u00a0updates direct from Las Vegas!<\/em><\/p>\n These are two teams who have beat up two cupcakes and finally get tested. Illinois benefited from missing two stars in the first game against Jackson State. Curbelo, Cockburn and Frazier missed that game which gave extra playing time to Jacob Grandison and Coleman Hawkins who took major advantage of the opportunity. Granderson had 20 points and 5 rebounds while Hawkins had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.<\/p>\n Coach Brad Underwood has very high expectations for Coleman this season. Omar Payne and Bosmans-Verdonk also contributed. Game 2 against Arkansas State was a blending of Frazier and Curbelo with the newly contributing members and the results were fantastic. Curbelo had 8 ponts, 7 assists and 2 steals while Grandison had 15 points and 6 rebounds, Coleman Hawkins was great with 17 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. Even though not at full strength yet, Illinois managed to accomplish their fast pace and ferocious defense. Cockburn will miss the Marquette game as well but they have managed so far in his absence. This will be their first road test.<\/p>\n Coach Shaka Smart brings his squad to this matchup off of two wins. Maryland transfer Darryl Morsell has been solid and scored 26 points with 5 assists and 3 rebounds against New Hampshire. He is averaging 23.5 ppg. Marquette was actually trailing by 6 with under 3 minutes to go against New Hampshire but a late 13-2 run gave them the slim 75-70 win. Marquette is a slow starting team so far. They shot only 2 of 13 shots in the first 10 minutes. They went up 53-44 only to be down by 6 late.<\/p>\n Marquette is a very streaky team and I think that will hurt them against the Illinois fast break and smothering defense. If Marquette goes down a bit early it will be much more difficult to catch up to Illinois like they did against New Hampshire. Illinois is a very deep and quick team. Lewis is the only major scoring threat and Marquette really has only one big body rebounder in Oso Ighodaro.<\/p>\n Both teams have great coaching but Illinois has far too much depth and can take advantage of a streaky team like Marquette. Illinois should be able to build a lead and keep it with the depth.<\/p>\n My numbers have Illinois winning 77-62. It may not be that much of a beat down but I would lay up to 9.5 in this one.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcb0Interested in just focusing on a specific sport (or two…or three…) over the next month? All 30-Day single-sport passes are marked down to $99 through Sunday. Pick your ‘capper. Pick the sport you’re interested in. And play side-by-side for 30 days. \u2014 WagerTalk (@WagerTalk) November 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMarquette vs Illinois Predictions<\/h3>\n
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