The Morning Line: Illinois and Iowa battle for the top of the B1G

With the #19 Illinois Fighting Illini heading to face the #18 Iowa Hawkeyes today, two of the teams battling for the top of what is undoubtedly college basketball’s toughest league makes for a good one. Illinois might be the hottest team in America, winning seven in a row to vault to the top of the Big Ten standings at 8-2. Sophomore guard Ayo Dosunmu has been a revelation for the Illini, and he’ll need to carry them for a big road win today. Illinois might be ahead of the toughest league, but they haven’t beaten a Top 25 team in conference yet.

Meanwhile Iowa is 6-4 in the B1G, but has three Top 25 wins, though all of them at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Junior center Luka Garza has been fantastic for Iowa this season, and he’ll need to dominate the post today.

Since there are no other major sporting events taking place anywhere today, except for one measly pro football game we saw something about somewhere, here’s everything you can be betting on at DraftKings sportsbook today.

Also Utah heads to UCLA, starting at 3 p.m. to get people home from Pauley Pavilion in time for that football game in Miami despite LA traffic. Utah and head coach Larry Krystkowiak have been so up and down this year: I was in Vegas to see them beat Kentucky in December, but they’re just 3-5 in the not-great Pac-12, including a 39-point shellacking at Colorado. But Timmy Allen for the Utes is worth the price of admission. UCLA isn’t great either, but at least they’ve been consistent in their mediocrity.

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