Drake vs. Illinois-Chicago prediction: Why Illinois-Chicago is favored to win men's college basketball matchup [1/17/2026]

Illinois-Chicago and Drake will lock horns in men's college basketball action at Credit Union 1 Arena on Saturday, starting at 3:00 PM ET.

Based on updated simulations, Dimers' advanced college basketball model predicts Illinois-Chicago as the most likely winner of the Drake vs. Illinois-Chicago game.

This article offers further insights into Saturday's matchup, including an expanded look at the predicted score, best bets and picks.

Drake vs. Illinois-Chicago prediction: Who will win and cover?

Using trusted machine learning and statistical analysis, we have simulated the outcome of Saturday's NCAA basketball matchup between Drake and Illinois-Chicago 10,000 times as part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our independent predictive model currently gives Illinois-Chicago a 66% chance of beating Drake. Our predicted final score has Illinois-Chicago winning 72-68.

According to our model, Illinois-Chicago (-2.5) has a 58% chance of covering the spread, while the 140.5-point over/under has a 52% chance of going over.

Drake vs. Illinois-Chicago odds

We have researched the best men's college basketball odds in America for this game, which are listed here:

All odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.

Drake vs. Illinois-Chicago picks and best bet

After matching our predictions against the best available odds, we can reveal our picks for each of the major markets. Plus, find our best bet for the game below: