Michigan enters as a #3-ranked team with a perfect 9-0 road record against an Illinois squad sitting at #10 with a 1-2 recent form collapse. The headline isn't the rankings—it's the structural mismatch: Michigan's elite pace-based system is engineered to punish Illinois's 327th-ranked possession length. When a transition-oriented team with elite spacing (Lendeborg 51% FG, Johnson Jr. 65% FG) faces a grinding, halfcourt-dependent offense, the pace dictator wins. Michigan will establish early transition advantages, and Illinois will spend the entire game trying to recover defensively, never settling into their preferred methodical rhythm. The betting market has already priced this. Sharp money is fleeing Illinois player props with unprecedented margin movement: Kylan Boswell's rebound over moved from -750 to +2200, Andrej Stojakovic's point total from -230 to +550. This isn't disagreement about Illinois's ceiling—it's professionals pricing in a blowout script where Illinois trails by 10-15 points early, their role players never reach volume thresholds, and the game becomes one-directional by the third quarter. The -1.5 line represents market overweighting of Illinois's 13-2 home record while ignoring Michigan's 9-0 away record, recent form divergence, and the fundamental pace advantage. Keaton Wagler (18.2 PPG, 4.3 APG) becomes the critical pressure point. He's Illinois's...