Illinois Fighting Illini vs Tennessee Volunteers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/06/25

The Illinois Fighting Illini and the Tennessee Volunteers face off on Saturday in Nashville as part of the Music City Madness event. Although not technically a home game, you can imagine the crowd will be more heavily tilted toward the Vols. Tennessee needs to get this win, as it has dropped 2 in a row. The Volunteers lost a game to Kansas in Vegas by 5 points and then surprisingly fell to an upstart Syracuse team on the road earlier this week. The Illini just lost by 13 to UConn and they lost to Alabama earlier in the year — thus they, too, could use a quality win. These teams should be evenly matched, even if they are completely different styles. I think the best play in this game is to take the under at 150.5.

Illinois is an old, veteran team that likes to play fast on offense. Tennessee is a slow, grinding team that is stifling on defense. This kind of conflict in styles usually goes the way of the slow defensive team, and that is what I expect on Saturday. When you play Tennessee, it takes most of the shot clock to find a shot and you rarely get a second one. That is the main reason most Vols games stay under the point total. In fact, these 2 teams faced off in Champaign last year and the Volunteers won 66-64 on a last-second layup. This year’s version of these teams have different players, but a very similar style and DNA. I look for a similar result. Give me the under — especially in a strange gym that is home to neither team.

Illinois vs Tennessee prediction: Under 150.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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