Marquette vs Illinois Prediction & Picks: Shannon, Illini Shoot for Big Win Over Big East Champs

Come March, quality non-conference road wins will be worth their weight in gold for teams looking to land on the best possible March Madness seed line. Tonight, Marquette will look to pick up one such win as Kam Jones and the #4 Golden Eagles visit Terrence Shannon Jr. and #23 Illinois (8:00 pm ET, FS1).

The reigning Big East champions have opened the new college basketball season with wins over Rider and Northern Illinois, but they won't have too many more of those games this season.

Next week, they will be in Hawaii for this year's Maui Invitational, where they will face UCLA and could face Kansas and Purdue, the current #1 and #2 teams in the country. And before they jump into Big East play, they will also visit Wisconsin and host Texas and Notre Dame.

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The Illini have more non-conference challenges ahead as well, as they face FAU at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic, visit Tennessee in Knoxville, and meet Missouri in St. Louis.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently has Illinois projected to be a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but a win tonight would enhance their outlook.

Oddsmakers are mildly optimistic about the Illini's chances to succeed in their resume-boosting bid, as they are favored by a couple of points over Marquette. But they will need to put in a much better performance than they did on Friday, when they struggled mightily with Oakland before pulling away in the final minutes.

Marquette vs Illinois Odds

Odds are courtesy of Bovada.

Spread

• Marquette +2 (-110)
• Illinois -2 (-110)

Over/Under

• Over 148.5 (-110)
• Under 148.5 (-110)

Moneyline

• Marquette +115
• Illinois -135

Marquette vs Illinois Prediction and Picks

Prediction: Marquette to win

Picks: Marquette +2 (-110 at Bovada) & Marquette team total over 73.5 (-115 at Bovada)

In recent years, the State Farm Center has not been a particularly welcoming place for ranked teams. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Illinois has ten home wins against ranked opposition, including a perfect 3-0 record last season with wins over #14 Wisconsin, #24 Rutgers, and #21 Northwestern.

That said, I really, really like this Marquette team, which returned four starters and the top three reserves from last year's Big East regular season and tournament championship-winning team.

In Shannon, Illinois has a guy who can be a game-changing scorer, but the Illini will need a whale of a defensive effort to defend their home court tonight.

That effort is certainly possible, but again, I really, really like this Marquette team, and I think they will pass this pre-Maui test with flying colors.

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