BYU vs. Kansas College Basketball prediction, preview
After a shaky start to Big 12 play, the Jayhawks seem to be rounding into form. Following a road loss on a Saturday afternoon at West Virginia, Kansas has now ripped off a four-game winning streak. The Jayhawks are 4-0 ATS in those games, winning by a margin of more than 17 points per game.
We know how difficult of a road environment playing at Allen Fieldhouse can be, where KU is 8-1 this season (lost as an underdog to UConn). While BYU has done plenty of traveling this season, it has mostly been for neutral games. The Cougars have only played three true road games thus far, and this will be the toughest of the bunch.
As talented as BYU is, it has also had issues playing against elite competition. The Cougars have been somewhat predictable, going 17-0 as the favorite this season, but 0-3 as the underdog — those losses have been to UConn, Texas Tech and Arizona. Those two most recent losses have come over the last three games, including Monday at home to the Wildcats.
Outside of the three losses, BYU hasn’t faced any real daunting competition. The shortest favorites the Cougars have been was -4.5 on two occasions, winning but not covering against Clemson and blowing out Wisconsin in Utah. What we’ve seen from this BYU team hasn’t been all that impressive, now 0-5 ATS in its last five games.
I think we could see the Cougars tail off a bit down the stretch in some of these high level games, as we have in these tough recent games. I’m going to make BYU prove it to me against a very good Kansas defense in a building that’s as difficult to play in as any. The Jayhawks seem to be picking it up offensively, and I believe they can win this game with some margin.
CBB Pick: Kansas -4.5 (-110)
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