Penn will make their way to State Farm Center as they get ready for their first game of the season while the Fighting Illini is coming off a 120-45 win over FDU on Monday night. Penn is bringing back plenty of talent back this season, returning four of their seven starters from last year. In this matchup, Penn will rely on TJ Power, who averaged 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds last season to lead this Quakers offense and create opportunities for Michael Zanoni, Augustus Gerhart, and AJ Levine.
Illinois will be without David Mirkovic, who averaged 13.3 points and 8.0 rebounds last season and Jake Davis. Even though Illinois will be without Mirkovic, they still have Andrej Stokjakovic, who averaged 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds last season. These two teams last met in March in the NCAA Tournament where Illinois won 105-70, which would cover this spread here tonight. Illinois has plenty of depth and Quentin Coleman just dropped 13 points last game and Zavier Zens dropped 12 off the bench. The Fighting Illini simply has too much depth and talent, and even though Penn is bringing back most of their talent from last year’s impressive run, I expect Illinois to be a little too much for Penn in this matchup.
Penn vs Illinois prediction: Illinois -30.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
