Northern Iowa vs Illinois State 1/29/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Illinois State Redbirds and the Northern Iowa Panthers meet Saturday in college basketball action from McLeod Center. Illinois State is 10-11 this year. The Redbirds lost to Drake in OT during their last outing. As for Northern Iowa, they’re sitting at 10-9 and coming off a win over Evansville. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Illinois State posted a decent 8-5 run over their first 13 games, then hit a losing streak to Wisconsin, Valparaiso and Drake. Since then it’s been a 2-3 run for the Redbirds with losses to Missouri State, Evansville and Drake. 

In the Drake matchup on Wednesday, the Redbirds kept the pace the whole way but the Bulldogs forced overtime. Illinois State ended up with a tough 89-88 loss. Leading the team scoring was Antonio Reeves on 25 points and two rebounds. 

Over on the Northern Iowa side, their year began at a rough 4-7 before a win streak versus Evansville, Valparaiso, Missouri State, Indiana State and Southern Illinois. After losses to Valparaiso and Drake the Panthers took out Evansville on Wednesday. 

Matched up against Evansville, the Panthers posted a 35-27 edge in the first half and were able to hang on for the 64-59 win. AJ Green was the team’s leading scorer with 18 points, and Nate Heise added 12 points with seven boards. 

The Panthers are 5-16-1 ATS in their last 22 at home and 5-14 ATS in their last 19 after a straight-up win. Northern Iowa is 0-4 ATS in their last four after an ATS loss. 

Meanwhile, the Redbirds are 2-8-1 ATS in their last 11 Saturday games and 8-2 ATS in the last 10 overall. The over is 6-2 in Illinois State’s last eight overall. 

PICK: I’m going to try Northern Iowa here. The Panthers have been on a nice 6-2 run during this calendar year, and their only losses in that stretch have come in overtime. Northern Iowa has scored 69 or more points in seven of those eight games as well. 

As for Illinois State, they’ve been a mixed bag lately with 63 or fewer points in two of their last four games. I like the Redbirds to pick it up and post a decent points total here, but I think Northern Iowa can power out the cover.