Southern Illinois vs. Illinois-Chicago prediction: Why Illinois-Chicago is favored to win men's college basketball matchup [1/7/2026]

Illinois-Chicago will face Southern Illinois, in what is expected to be a close Men's College Basketball game, at Credit Union 1 Arena on Wednesday, beginning at 8:00 PM ET.

Based on updated simulation results, Dimers' advanced college basketball model gives Illinois-Chicago a slight edge with a 52% win probability over Southern Illinois.

This article offers a closer look at Wednesday's Southern Illinois vs. Illinois-Chicago matchup, including an expanded look at the predicted score, best bets and picks.

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

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

Our leading predictive model currently gives Illinois-Chicago a 52% chance of defeating Southern Illinois. Our predicted score is Southern Illinois 73-73 Illinois-Chicago.

According to our model, Illinois-Chicago (+1.5) has a 56% chance of covering the spread, while the 146.5-point over/under has a 51% chance of staying under.

While there is no way for a men's college basketball game to end in a tie, our prediction of 73-73 is based on each team's average score in the above-mentioned simulations of Southern Illinois vs. Illinois-Chicago.

Southern Illinois 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.

Southern Illinois vs. Illinois-Chicago picks and best bet

After matching our predictions 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: