Tonight in Kansas City, the TCU Horned Frogs are facing the Kansas Jayhawks in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament. Kansas is the No. 3 seed in this bracket, while TCU is No. 6. TCU beat No. 14 Oklahoma State 95-88 in its first tournament game on Wednesday. The winner of this game will face the winner of tonight’s Houston vs. BYU matchup in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Kansas is -4.5 on the spread while TCU is +185 to pull off the upset. Check out my best bet for the TCU-Kansas contest below.
TCU vs. Kansas (9:30 p.m. ET)
These teams first met on January 6, with Kansas winning 104-100 in overtime. Freshman star Darryn Peterson led the way with 32 points in that game while Tre White added 22 of his own against TCU. Liutauras Lelevicius and David Punch both scored at least 20 points for TCU against Kansas. Kansas is 11-5 since playing TCU, while the Horned Frogs have an 11-6 record in that span. TCU enters this matchup on a six-game winning streak, while Kansas is 3-3 in its previous six.
Kansas ranks 18th on KenPom, while TCU ranks 42nd in college basketball. Both teams excel on defense, with Kansas ranked 11th and TCU 22nd in defensive rating. TCU averages two more points per game than Kansas and has four players scoring double-digit points per contest.
The difference in this contest is Darryn Peterson, who is averaging 19.9 points and has scored at least 24 points in two of his last three. Peterson has nine 20-point performances this season. When Peterson has been healthy and playing a normal number of minutes, he has looked unstoppable.
Kansas’ last five victories have all come by at least four points. The Jayhawks are 11-4 in their previous 15 games with 10 wins in that span by four-plus points. TCU’s last three losses have all come by at least four points. During their current winning streak, TCU has only scored 80 points twice. Although Kansas’ offense has been inconsistent at times, it still has more upside than TCU’s, with Peterson leading the way.
