College Basketball Picks

Illinois vs Loyola-Chicago College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 3/21/21

Illinois vs Loyola-Chicago College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 3/21/21
2021-03-21 12:10:00 EDT

The Illinois Fighting Illini take on the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers in an NCAA tournament second round matchup in college basketball action on Sunday.

The Illinois Fighting Illini come into this game fresh off of their 78-49 beatdown of Drexel last time out. Kofi Cockburn led the Illini with 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting with a pair of blocks while Ayo Dosunmu had 17 points on 8 of 14 shooting with 11 rebounds and 6 assists, both team-highs. Dosunmu added 3 steals as well while Trent Frazier had 11 points and Andre Miller had 10 points to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Illinois in the victory.

The Loyola-Chicago Ramblers booked their spot in the second round after a 71-60 win over Georgia Tech last time out. Lucas Williamson led the Ramblers with 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting with 4 threes along with a team-high 6 rebounds and 4 assists while Bud Norris added 16 points with 4 threes and a team-high 8 assists. Keith Clemons had 12 points with 3 threes and a pair of assists and Cameron Krutwig had 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting with 5 rebounds in the victory.

Illinois is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 NCAA tournament games while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games as a favorite. Loyola-Chicago is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 NCAA tournament games while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 neutral site games.

This is going to be an interesting matchup of who can control the pace in this matchup, as Illinois will want to run and gun while the Ramblers will want to implore more of the turtle’s pace that saw them use one of the slowest paces in the country. With that said, I think that the Illini will just end up being too much here. The Ramblers have outstanding defense, but haven’t had to take on the likes of Dosunmu and Cockburn for the Illini. It’s not an easy game to call, but not many in March are. I’ll lay the points with Illinois here.  

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: Illinois -7

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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