Texas Kansas Betting – Upper-Tier Big 12 Teams Face Noteworthy Test
The Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks used to have the best basketball rivalry in the Big 12. They’ll try to re-create it this weekend in Lawrence, Kansas.
NCAA basketball betting: Texas Longhorns @ Kansas Jayhawks
Online Betting Odds:
Why To Bet On Texas
The ranks of Super Bowl betting experts are skeptical of the Chicago Bears because they haven’t faced a stiff test yet in the NFL playoffs. The landscape is similar in college basketball, as the Kansas Jayhawks really haven’t met the kind of team that can expose their foremost weaknesses. Kansas figured to be given an eye-opening and vigorous challenge by Memphis, but the Tigers – unpolished and lacking in cohesion – have not ripened into the kind of team that a lot of college basketball pundits thought they’d become. Kansas’ best win in the 2010-2011 season might still be Memphis. Maybe it’s against Arizona. It sure isn’t against a true top-15 team that has national championship chops. Kansas’ most recent non-conference win was against a Michigan team that will probably miss all four postseason tournaments. KU is just scraping by as it is against less-than-imposing opposition within the Big 12 Conference. The Jayhawks beat Nebraska by only three points and outlasted Iowa State by only five. KU is frankly playing as though it’s become bored with this season and is waiting for the NCAA Tournament to begin. That might work out okay in the long run, but in the short term, it might get the Jayhawks a home-court loss against Texas. A 69-game home-court winning streak won’t last forever.
Why To Bet On Kansas
The sports betting consensus is that you pick in favor of a major streak unless there’s enough countervailing evidence to demand otherwise. Kansas has indeed won 69 straight games at home, but it does have to be said that the Jayhawks were lucky to win two home games this year against UCLA – in a game that ended on an incorrect call that went against the Bruins – and versus a USC team that had KU on the ropes. Kansas might get shot down by Texas, but the salient question facing college hoopheads is if Texas is loaded enough to do the job. The answer is probably negative.
Texas ironically faces the same issue Kansas does: The Longhorns, though 2-0 in the Big 12, have not faced upper-tier teams in the conference. Coach Rick Barnes’ ballclub has pasted Texas Tech and Oklahoma, the two teams who are likely to finish 11th and 12th in the league… and in that order as well. We really don’t know much about Texas yet, but the Longhorns – who used to stage epic duels with the Jayhawks in the middle of the past decade – will probably awaken Kansas and stir the Jayhawks out of their boredom.
How The Game Will Play Out
This should be a very close game. Kansas is not landing knockout punches, but Texas doesn’t score well enough in the Big 12 to run away with the proceedings, either. Kansas isn’t firing on all cylinders, but a rugged defensive effort from coach Bill Self’s KU crew will be enough to defeat the Longhorns. Take Kansas this Saturday.
Texas Kansas Betting Pick: Kansas
