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

Illinois-Chicago will face the favored Murray State in men's college basketball action at Credit Union 1 Arena on New Year's Day, starting at 9:00 PM ET.

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

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

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

Using trusted machine learning and data, we have simulated the outcome of Thursday's NCAA basketball game between Murray State and Illinois-Chicago 10,000 times as part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our independent predictive model currently gives Murray State a 66% chance of defeating Illinois-Chicago. Our predicted final score has Murray State winning 79-75.

According to our model, Illinois-Chicago (+6.5) has a 58% chance of covering the spread, while the over/under total of 159.5 points has a 54% chance of staying under.

Murray State 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.

Murray State 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: