Indiana +3.5(-106 at Pinnacle monday afternoon)
It still boggles my mind that this game opened at 4.5 at Pinnacle, if IU loses by 4 I will be major pissed.
Indiana comes into this game off of a loss on the road to Michigan State where once again Paul Davis dismantled them. George Leach who is a great shotblocker, is actually a horrid position defender, and horrid could be giving him some benefit. He struggles against good offensive post players, but at times can dominate average post players. I label Nick Smith and Augustine average, though Augustine will be a very very good player down the road, Smith on the other hand will just always look goofy. Interior defense is IU's main team weakness and Illinois will not be able to exploit that. On the other side, when Leach is matched up with Augustine, I expect Leach to be able to do somet things offensively. Assembly Hall will be rockin tomorrow night, and I see no reason why a team who cant win at Nwestern will come in and win at IU, who is not the same team as earlier this season, though this line makes it seem that way.
Looking at Sagarin Ratings, The ELO CHESS(which does not take into account scoring margin) makes Indiana 4 point favorites, while the PREDICTOR(which does take into account margins) make Illinois 5 point favorites. Pretty Strange. But the reason IU's PREDICTOR is so low because of the 3 blowouts sustained while Leach was out. Indiana 69 Illinois 63
It still boggles my mind that this game opened at 4.5 at Pinnacle, if IU loses by 4 I will be major pissed.
Indiana comes into this game off of a loss on the road to Michigan State where once again Paul Davis dismantled them. George Leach who is a great shotblocker, is actually a horrid position defender, and horrid could be giving him some benefit. He struggles against good offensive post players, but at times can dominate average post players. I label Nick Smith and Augustine average, though Augustine will be a very very good player down the road, Smith on the other hand will just always look goofy. Interior defense is IU's main team weakness and Illinois will not be able to exploit that. On the other side, when Leach is matched up with Augustine, I expect Leach to be able to do somet things offensively. Assembly Hall will be rockin tomorrow night, and I see no reason why a team who cant win at Nwestern will come in and win at IU, who is not the same team as earlier this season, though this line makes it seem that way.
Looking at Sagarin Ratings, The ELO CHESS(which does not take into account scoring margin) makes Indiana 4 point favorites, while the PREDICTOR(which does take into account margins) make Illinois 5 point favorites. Pretty Strange. But the reason IU's PREDICTOR is so low because of the 3 blowouts sustained while Leach was out. Indiana 69 Illinois 63
