A pair of top-10 teams will square off Saturday afternoon when the reigning champion Baylor Bears invade the Lawrence Fieldhouse looking to halt a three-game coverless streak at online sportsbooks against the No. 10 Kansas Jayhawks. These teams currently sit in first and second place atop the Big 12 standings. As such, much will be on the line when the teams collide in the first of two scheduled regular season standoffs. These rivals split their pair of meetings a year ago with both home teams holding serve SU while the Jayhawks snagged a pair of wins against the closing college basketball betting odds. KU was embarrassed the last time it took to its home hardwood in dropping a one-sided 80-62 decision to the Kentucky Wildcats as 5-point favorites. You can bet your bottom dollar Bill Self will have his kids ready for the test that awaits in the form of a Bears squad that hasn’t been playing its best brand of ball of late. Linemakers are likely to have the hosts laying no more than a possession, and that would be enticing enough for me to lay the home wood after fading the Jayhawks big last week against KY Jelly.
Take this Big 12 battle in live on ESPN at 4 p.m. ET from the Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday, February 5, 2022. BookMaker.eu will have NCAA basketball odds available for this and every game lined up for Saturday’s loaded college basketball schedule.
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Odds Analysis
As great Baylor has been in recent seasons, Kansas has held its own against Scott Drew’s squad in winning seven of the last 10 overall meetings and logging a 5-4-1 ATS record in those tilts. Last year’s 4.5-point spread was the lowest it went the board at since Kansas started hosting Baylor in Big 12 play dating back to 1998! It’ll be even shorter this time around with the Bears clocking in as Ken Pom’s No. 3 ranked team and the Jayhawks at No. 10. It figures to be a tough defensive minded affair as well with the under cashing in four of the last five times they squared off in the Phog with an average of 135.4 points scored. KU held Baylor to an average of just 66 points while averaging just over 69 themselves. That being said, KU only managed one point spread cover during that stretch.
Baylor Bears
The defending champs got handled with relative ease in their Big 12/SEC showdown with the Alabama Crimson Tide a week ago to the day in dropping an 87-78 decision as 3-point road favorites. It turned the ball over 16 times and allowed Bama to shoot nearly 60 percent from the field. That loss was followed up with a win and non-cover back home in Waco against the West Virginia Mountaineers. Baylor went off the board as decided 12-point favorites, but grossly failed to cover the number in the 81-77 triumph. While it only committed 11 turnovers, the defense once again failed to show up in allowing the Mounty’s No. 250 ranked scoring offense to shoot 54 percent from the field and drain 11 3-balls. The defensive screws must be turned to improve upon its perfect 4-0 SU and 3-1 ATS records on the Big 12 road.
Kansas Jayhawks
The Twitterverse blew up early Tuesday afternoon when it was announced Ochai Agbaji didn’t travel with the team to Ames for the rematch with the Iowa State Cyclones. The point spread plummeted from -5 all the way down to -1 before going off the board at -1.5. Even with their leading scorer out of commission, the Jayhawks wasted little time bouncing back from their ugly loss to Kentucky by taking the wood to ISU en route to logging the 70-61 win and cover. It proved to be an incredibly efficient showing at both ends of the court. Dajuan Harris and David McCormack led the team in scoring with 14 points apiece while the Jayhawks drained 28 of their 50 shot attempts (56%). The defense was even better holding the Clones to a 41 percent showing which included a dreadful 5-of-22 effort from deep. When KU puts forth a defensive effort like that, it’s incredibly tough to defeat.
Baylor at Kansas Betting Prediction
Even after loosening up defensively recently, Baylor marches the No. 15 ranked defensive efficiency onto the court. It’s allowed just over 61 points per game and has done a rock solid job defending the perimeter (No. 45). Same goes for Kansas even though it served up 75, 91 and 80 point outputs its three prior games leading up to the 61 allowed in Ames on Tuesday night. As great both teams are at shooting and defending the 3-ball, this game will ultimately come down to the side that best limits turnovers and does more damage in the paint. Close to the rack is where both teams are susceptible and both offenses rank No. 28 and No. 17 respectively in 2-point scoring. Look for this one to be closely contested all the way through with every possession meaningful. In the end, I foresee the Jayhawks finding a way to protect its house by feeding off that impressive undermanned win at Iowa State and remain atop the B12 standings.
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