How and what to watch for No. 8 Creighton vs. No. 5 Kansas

The No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks will be tested once again with one of the toughest early-season schedules across college basketball when they take on the eighth-ranked Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday night at home.

Kansas played the No. 1 team in the country Gonzaga Bulldogs to start the season and suffered a 102-90 loss, but last week the Jayhawks got the best of the Kentucky Wildcats 65-62. After a few relatively easy opponents, Kansas comes in with a 4-1 record as the fifth-best team in college basketball. North Dakota State hung with the Jayhawks till the very end in their last time out, but they pulled away for a 65-61 win. Freshman Jalen Wilson led all scorers with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Creighton has been able to get through a fairly weak slate unscathed, handling North Dakota State, Omaha and Kennesaw State relatively easily. It’s tough to take too much away from the Bluejays’ first three games, but this is a team with Final Four aspirations just like Kansas. Christian Bishop is only playing 17.7 minutes per game in the first three, but he is leading the team with 15 points per game.

Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming

You can watch Creighton vs. Kansas on Tuesday, December 8th at 4:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, or you can watch via WatchESPN with a cable or streaming service login.

Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends

Point spread: Creighton vs. Kansas -3.5
Point Total: 148.5
Money line: Creighton (+140) vs. Kansas (-167)

Betting Splits

Creighton: (49% of action, 45% of bets)
Kansas: (51% of action, 55% of bets)

• Creighton is 11-4 against the spread in its last 15 games, while Kansas is 2-5 in its last seven.
• Creighton is 5-0 straight up in its last five games, and Kansas is 20-1 straight up in its last 21 games.
• The total went under in 13 of Creighton’s last 17 road and Kansas is 10-0 straight up in its last 10 home games.

The Best Bet

Kansas is far more battle tested early in the season than Creighton, and I think that gives teams a pretty significant advantage as college basketball starts to pick up and get rolling. Given this and how dominant Kansas can be at Allen Fieldhouse, I’m inclined to go with the home (Rock) Chalk in this matchup to cover this spread in what should be a fairly exciting game.

Pick: Kansas -3.5

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