College Basketball Betting – (11) Kansas at (17) Texas
(11) Kansas Jayhawks at (17) Texas Longhorns (-3, 130.5 o/u)
Early in 2015 conference play, the Big 12 continues to eat its own. Through just five or six games for each team, every squad has at least one conference loss on its resume. The No. 11 Kansas Jayhawks (14-3, 4-1 Big 12) were the last team to fall, suffering an 86-81 setback at Iowa State last weekend.
The team rebounded on Tuesday with an 85-78 win over Oklahoma, and they will look to parlay that into a two-game win streak today when they visit the No. 17 Texas Longhorns (14-4, 3-2 Big 12) at the Frank Erwin Center (2:00 p.m. Eastern).
The Jayhawks had won five straight heading into their heavyweight tilt with the Cyclones and could have solidified their spot at the top of the conference with a win. But Kansas had no answer for Naz Long, who dropped 20 points on 7/12 shooting.
“I think the big thing is you got to play with a motor. When you’re guarding a guy that’s active on the perimeter, you got to at least close out or be in a stance or do some things to try and guard him. I didn’t think that was the case at all,” said Kansas coach Bill Self of his team’s performance against Long.
After dropping consecutive games against the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Texas Longhorns have won two in a row. They beat up on over matched TCU on the road (66-40) and scored an impressive home win over No. 16 West Virginia in Austin (77-50).
“We’re putting in hours in the practice gym, just talking on and off the court,” said Longhorn point guard Isaiah Taylor, who has played in all five conference games since returning from a broken wrist. “We feel that we’re ready for a big push.”
Kansas is 4-1 SU in its last five on the road against Texas, but just 3-7 ATS in its last ten in Austin. With Taylor looking like he’s back on his game, take the Longhorns and lay the points (-3).
(Photo credit: aaronisnotcool (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo may appear cropped.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
