Michigan vs Illinois Prediction 3/2/25 College Basketball Picks Today

The Illinois Fighting Illini and the Michigan Wolverines meet Sunday in college basketball action from Crisler Center. Here’s a Michigan vs Illinois prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Michigan vs Illinois pick.

Illinois Fighting Illini Betting Preview

Illinois opened up the season on a great clip, but they’ve struggled since early January amid a very tough schedule of opponents. The Illini kicked things off with a 12-3 run, taking out Eastern Illinois, SIU Edwardsville, Oakland, MD Eastern Shore, Little Rock, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Chicago State, Oregon, Washington and Penn State in that time. A 5-5 run came next with wins over Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota and UCLA among losses to USC, Michigan State, Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers. After three straight losses to Michigan State, Wisconsin and Duke, Illinois finally got another win over Iowa, improving their record to 18-11 overall on the year through 29 games so far.

In the Iowa matchup on Tuesday, Illinois held a seven-point edge going into the second half. The Illini kept it up from there, posting a 44-31 run on the way to an 81-61 victory in the end. Topping the scorers in the home win was Tomislav Ivisic with 22 points, four boards and five assists. Both Kylan Boswell (four rebounds; seven assists) and Will Riley (seven rebounds; two assists; two steals) chipped in 15 points apiece, while Tre White added 14 points with two rebounds in 20 minutes on the floor.

Michigan Wolverines Betting Preview

Over on the Wolverines’ side, they’ve only got a couple of brief runs of spotty play in the books this year. Michigan has otherwise done very well in the record column. The Wolverines opened on an 8-3 stretch, taking losses to only Wake Forest, Arkansas and Oklahoma during that time. After wins over Fort Wayne, Western Kentucky, USC, UCLA and Washington in the next five, Michigan lost to Minnesota and Purdue around a win over Northwestern. It’s been an 8-1 run since then with a loss to Michigan State among wins over Penn State, Rutgers, Oregon, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Nebraska and Rutgers. That gives the Wolverines a 22-6 record across the first 28 games of the 2024-25 campaign.

Matched up against Rutgers on Thursday, the Wolverines were outscored 57-49 in the first half. Michigan woke up from there on a 35-25 run and powered out the comeback win at home 84-82. Vladislav Goldin led the team on a double-double with 22 points, 11 boards, two assists and two blocks. Nimari Burnett added 20 points with four rebounds and two assists, while top bench scorer Will Tschetter had 16 points with one rebound in 18 minutes of action.

Why the Michigan Wolverines will win

• Michigan has won each of its last 12 games at Crisler Center against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• Illinois has lost each of its last four games following a home win.
• Michigan has won the first half in eight of its last nine day games against non-AP-ranked opponents.

Why the Illinois Fighting Illini will win

• Illinois has won each of its last eight games against Michigan.
• Illinois has won the first half in each of its last eight games against Michigan.

Michigan vs Illinois Prediction

I’m going to try Illinois here, but you could make a good argument the other way–especially with the relatively thin line. The Illini finally got a much-needed win over a middling Iowa team in their last outing, shooting 50.8 percent from the field with just five turnovers along the way. Illinois got outmuscled on the boards 36-31, but also scored 17 points off 16 Hawkeyes turnovers. The Illini had given up 74 or more points in 11 straight games prior to that, so if they return to form on Sunday Illinois could be in trouble.

As for Michigan, they started slowly versus Rutgers and played a sloppy game overall with 14 turnovers for 16 Knights points. The Wolverines shot 53.7 percent from the field but also hit a tepid 65.6 percent (21-of-32) from the line and 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) from outside. Still, it was a nice points total (84) after finishing below 63 points in consecutive games. Depending on how things shake out here, Michigan could easily control things the whole way. That said, if Illinois plays to their capabilities—and gets off to a fast start like Rutgers did—I can see the Illini hanging in there. It would be nice if the line were a little thicker, though.