#749 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Minnesota +11.5 over Illinois, Wednesday at 9 PM ET - The Gophs continue to be undervalued with a ridiculous 23-4 ATS record and the fact is this team has played very well and been very competitive since late January. They’ve won 5 of their last 8 games and against the top half of the Big 10, they’ve held their own to say the least. Against the top 6 teams in the conference (Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, & Nebraska), all ranked inside KenPom’s top 45 nationally, Minnesota has a record of 3-4 SU (6-1 ATS) with only 1 loss coming by more than 10 points and that was @ Nebraska over the weekend. They gave Purdue all they could handle on the road losing by 8 in a game the Gophers led by 10 in the 2nd half. They lost by 2 points vs Wisconsin and split with Michigan State – those are the top 3 teams in the conference besides Illinois. They are coming off their worst outing of the entire season losing @ Nebraska by 18 and they haven’t lost by more than 12 in any other conference game this season. We expect the Gophers to play well in what is a must win game if they have any hopes of an NCAA berth. They are on the outside looking in now but winning this game and closing the season with 3 more winnable games could get them in the conversation. Illinois is coming off a home win over Iowa by 10 points in a game they trailed by 7 with 12:00 remaining in the game. The Illini are in 2nd place in the Big 10 and they have a huge game on deck @ 3rd place Wisconsin to this could be a flat spot for them. They simply haven’t been playing dominant basketball over the last month. Their record over that stretch is 6-3 SU, however they only have 1 win by more than 12 points and that was at home vs a free falling Michigan team. Their defense has not been good allowing at least 1.13 PPP in 6 of their last 9 games and they’ve allowed at least 80 points in 5 of their last 6 games. Minnesota’s offense has played very well as of late averaging 78 PPG in their 7 games prior to playing poorly vs Nebraska last weekend. They’ll be able to do enough on offense to stay within this big number. Take the points.