Notre Dame vs Illinois Odds, Lines, and Spread (Nov. 29)

• Illinois is a 6.5-point home favorite over Notre Dame on Monday night
• The game is part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge
• The matchup and odds can be found below with a prediction

The first night of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge includes Notre Dame visiting #14 Illinois at 9pm ET Monday at the State Farm Center in Champaign.

Notre Dame (3-2) lost two out of three games last week at the Maui Invitational, which was relocated to Las Vegas because of COVID-19 concerns. The Fighting Irish fell to Texas A&M 73-63 on Wednesday in the fourth-place game.

Illinois (4-2) has won back-to-back games after losing two in a row. The Fighting Illini survived Texas-Rio Grande Valley 94-85 on Friday night at home.

ESPN2 will televise the matchup and Illinois is favored by 6.5 points.

Notre Dame vs Illinois Odds

Odds as of November 28th at DraftKings.

Faux Hawaii Not Paradise for ND

Notre Dame finished its visit to Hawaii, er, Las Vegas in frustrating fashion with the loss to Texas A&M.

The Fighting Irish led 41-27 with 17 minutes left and was still on top 54-51 with 8:55 remaining. However, they didn’t score another field goal until freshman guard Blake Wesley’s dunk with four seconds to go while the Aggies rallied for the win.

Junior guard Dane Goodwin was a bright spot for Notre Dame as he scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. He bumped his season averages to 15.0 points and 5.8 rebounds.

19 points for Dane Goodwin and 4-6 from deep 🔥🔥🔥

Putting the team on his BACK pic.twitter.com/BZOmn0n3jh

— Barstool Irish (@BarstoolIrish) December 17, 2020

Senior forward Paul Atkinson, a transfer from Yale, added 11 points to go with five rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals. He is averaging 14.2 points and 6.6 rebounds a game.

Goodwin and Atkinson have scored in double figures in all five games.

Junior guard Prentiss Hubb had 11 points and three assists. The Fighting Irish are hoping that is a positive sign as Hubb’s scoring average has dropped from 14.6 last season to just 7.2 in 2021-22.

Blake Wesley… Remember the name! pic.twitter.com/I7GH6mPf4N

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 21, 2020

Hubb is shooting 25% from the floor and 15.4% on three-pointers.

A hometown recruit from South Bend, Wesley had 10 points against Texas A&M and is averaging 10.8 in his true freshman season.

Notre Dame had 18 turnovers, including 12 in the second half, in the loss while shooting 23.1% (6 for 26) from long range.

Illini Win Short-Handed

Illinois got past visiting Texas-Rio Grande Valley 94-85 on Friday night despite missing three key players. Senior guard Trent Frazier and sophomore guard Andre Curbelo were injured while senior wing Jacob Grandison had an illness.

All are questionable for Monday.

Meanwhile, junior center Kofi Cockburn led the way for the Fighting Illini with 38 points on 15-of-19 shooting and 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Senior Alfonso Plummer added 30 points, knocking down 6-of-11 three-point attempts.

Seeing 𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞@kxng_alpha#Illini | #EveryDayGuys pic.twitter.com/GlfLXZJW49

— Illinois Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 29, 2021

That marked the first time two Illinois players scored at least 30 points in the same game since the 1990-91 season when Andy Kaufmann went off for 46 against Milwaukee and Deon Thomas finished with 34.

Cockburn is averaging 26.3 points and 10 rebounds in three games. The preseason All-American missed the first three games of the season because of an NCAA rules violation.

A transfer from Utah, Plummer is starting to get comfortable with his new team as he has 51 points in his last two games while making 13-of-20 (65%) shots from long range. In the first four games, he had 25 points and shot 5-of-20 (25%) beyond the arc.

Illinois’ Alfonso Plummer is averaging 25.5 points over the last two games, shooting 65% (13/20) from 3-point range. The “Fonz” is on fire. pic.twitter.com/xpfHAyw8kI

— Dariush Takhtehchian, M.D (@takhtehchianmd) November 29, 2021

Overall, Plummer (12.7) is averaging double figures in scoring along with Grandison (10.8) and sophomore forward Coleman Hawkins (10.7), who also is grabbing 6.2 rebounds and dishing 2.7 assists a game with 1.5 steals.

Hawkins is showing great improvement after averaging 6.2 minutes last season when he did not score more than five points in a game. He has been in double digits in four of six games this season.

Notre Dame vs Illinois Prediction

Notre Dame has won three in a row against Illinois. That includes a 76-74 victory during the 2018-19 season in South Bend in which Hubb scored 10 points.

Yet if Illinois is shorthanded again, the deep Illini figures to be too much for the Irish in their first true road game of the season, especially with Cockburn presenting matchup problems with a smallish frontcourt.

The Pick: Illinois -6.5 (-110)