Illinois Fighting Illini face Xavier Musketeers in first round of NCAA Tournament

Xavier Musketeers (22-11, 13-8 Big East) vs. Illinois Fighting Illini (21-12, 13-9 Big Ten)

Milwaukee; Friday, 9:45 p.m. EDT

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Fighting Illini -3.5; over/under is 159.5

BOTTOM LINE: Illinois plays Xavier in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Fighting Illini’s record in Big Ten games is 13-9, and their record is 8-3 in non-conference games. Illinois leads the Big Ten with 83.8 points and is shooting 45.0%.

The Musketeers are 13-8 against Big East teams. Xavier is the best team in the Big East scoring 15.2 fast break points per game.

Illinois scores 83.8 points, 12.6 more per game than the 71.2 Xavier allows. Xavier has shot at a 46.9% rate from the field this season, 4.7 percentage points higher than the 42.2% shooting opponents of Illinois have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Kasparas Jakucionis is scoring 15.0 points per game with 5.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the Fighting Illini. Will Riley is averaging 15.4 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 48.8% over the last 10 games.

Ryan Conwell is shooting 41.7% from beyond the arc with 3.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Musketeers, while averaging 16.7 points. Zach Freemantle is averaging 18.7 points and 6.6 rebounds over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Fighting Illini: 6-4, averaging 81.7 points, 33.8 rebounds, 15.8 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 83.2 points per game.

Musketeers: 8-2, averaging 81.6 points, 30.0 rebounds, 17.9 assists, 8.0 steals and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 50.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.5 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.