Illinois vs. Houston prediction: Houston favored to win men's March Madness Sweet Sixteen matchup [3/26/2026]

Houston will take on Illinois in March Madness Sweet Sixteen action at Toyota Center on Thursday, commencing at 10:05 PM ET.

For this Sweet 16 game, Houston—Kelvin Sampson’s youngest team in years with elite guard play— face Illinois, the most efficient offense in college basketball history according to KenPom.

Based on updated simulation results, Dimers' advanced college basketball model predicts Houston as the most likely winner of the Illinois vs. Houston game.

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

Illinois vs. Houston prediction: Who will win and advance to the Elite Eight?

Using innovative machine learning and data, we have simulated the result of Thursday's NCAAM Tournament game between Illinois and Houston, forming part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our leading predictive model gives Houston a 59% chance of beating Illinois. Our predicted final score has Houston winning 71-69.

According to our model, Illinois (+2.5) has a 51% chance of covering the spread, while the 140.5-point over/under has a 52% chance of going over.

Illinois vs. Houston odds

We have sourced 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.

Illinois vs. Houston picks and best bet

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