Who's Playing

N. Illinois Huskies @ N. Iowa Panthers

Current Records: N. Illinois 3-6, N. Iowa 4-4

How To Watch

What to Know

If the oddsmakers' predictions hold true, the near future looks bright for N. Iowa. They will square off against the N. Illinois Huskies at 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at McLeod Center. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

N. Iowa will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up 56 points last Friday, then bounced right back against UIC on Wednesday. N. Iowa put a hurting on UIC to the tune of 83-56. The Panthers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four games by 19 points or more this season.

N. Iowa's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Leon Bond III, who went 9 for 12 en route to 22 points. Bond III had some trouble finding his footing against St. Bona. last Friday, so this was a nice turnaround. The team also got some help courtesy of Trey Campbell, who went 6 for 9 en route to 17 points plus five assists and five rebounds.

N. Iowa was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as UIC only racked up 12.

Meanwhile, N. Illinois finally caught a break after five consecutive losses. They blew past Benedictine 89-70 on Tuesday.

The victory got N. Iowa back to even at 4-4. As for N. Illinois, their win bumped their record up to 3-6.

This contest is shaping up to be a blowout: N. Iowa has been crazy accurate this season, having made 50.7% of their field goals per game. It's a different story for N. Illinois, though, as they've only made 41.8% of their field goals this season. Given N. Iowa's sizable advantage in that area, N. Illinois will need to find a way to close that gap.

N. Iowa beat N. Illinois 76-63 when the teams last played back in December of 2023. Will N. Iowa repeat their success, or does N. Illinois have a better game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.

Odds

N. Iowa is a big 18.5-point favorite against N. Illinois, according to the latest college basketball odds.

The oddsmakers were right in line with the betting community on this one, as the game opened as a 18.5-point spread, and stayed right there.


The over/under is 139.5 points.

See college basketball picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine's advanced computer model. Get picks now.

Series History

N. Iowa has won all of the games they've played against N. Illinois in the last 5 years.

  • Dec 21, 2023 - N. Iowa 76 vs. N. Illinois 63
  • Nov 26, 2022 - N. Iowa 83 vs. N. Illinois 76
  • Nov 09, 2019 - N. Iowa 64 vs. N. Illinois 54