Kansas vs Oklahoma College Basketball Predictions and Odds Jan 18
Kansas vs Oklahoma Betting Preview
WagerTalk college basketball capper Tony Finn offers his Kansas vs Oklahoma betting preview for Tuesday, January 18. At the time of posting, the Jayhawks have opened as a 3.5-point road favorite over the home Sooners, with the total sitting at 143 points.
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| Tuesday, January 18 | Big 12 Basketball Betting Notes |
|---|---|
| Point Spread: | Kansas Jayhawks -3.5 vs Oklahoma Sooners |
| Total: | 143 Points |
| Game Time: | 7:00pm ET / 4:00pm PT |
| Arena: | Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK |
| TV: | ESPN |
Kansas vs Oklahoma Analysis
No. #7 ranked Kansas Jayhawks (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) are on the road for a Big 12 Conference matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners (12-5, 2-3 Big 12). Tuesday night, the Jayhawks aim to extend a two-game winning streak at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, while the Sooners attempt to right their ship after dropping a pair of league events.
The Jayhawks are coming off an impressive win over the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday. A week ago, the Sooners fell to the Longhorns in Austin, Texas, and followed that defeat with an overtime loss to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon.
Jayhawks’ domination of Mountaineers impresses Huggy Bear.
Kansas nearly executed a clean sweep of the program’s non-conference schedule with victories over Michigan State, North Texas, and St John’s. The lone loss came against the Atlantic 10 Dayton Flyers. The Jayhawks opened Big 12 play with a 74-63 win at Oklahoma State on Jan.4 before suffering their lone conference setback on the road against a ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders squad.
The Jayhawks rebounded with home wins over then-No—#15 Iowa State and Saturday versus coach Bob Huggins’ West Virginia Mountaineers. Kansas is always a difficult out at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, and Saturday was no exception in their 85-59 beatdown of the Mountaineers. The Jayhawks easily covered the bookmakers spread as 11.5-point home favorites over Huggins’ squad.
“I don’t know what’s been going on here, but the guy is a first-round pick the way he rebounds and the way he runs,” Huggins said of McCormack. “He’s really worked on his jump shot and finishing around the rim. Of course, it’s easier to finish around the rim when you’re bigger than everybody else, too,” added Huggins.
All-American guard candidate Ochai Agbaji leads an experienced Kansas lineup with 20.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Agbaji has connected on a crazy-good 47.7% of his 3-point attempts. Guard Christian Braun averages 15.6 points and snatches 6.2 rebounds per game. Arizona State Sun Devils’ transfer Guard, Remy Martin, scores 9.8 points but is questionable for Tuesday’s game.
Kansas averages 81.9 points per game with a 15.6 point average margin of victory. As a team, the Jayhawks shoot an effective field goal percentage of 56.6% and rebound 34.4% of their missed shots. Coach Bill Self’s troupe surrender an average of 66.3 points per game and allow opponents to effectively shoot 47.4% from the field.
The Jayhawks are 1-1 in true road games with a 74-63 win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater and a 75-67 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock. In addition, the Hawks are 8-8 against the spread with an over-under mark of 10-4-2 on the season.
Sooners suffering from sloppy play and a short bench
“(Against) OU, we are going to get the chance to guard a guy who gave us 35 in the NCAA Tournament last year,” Kansas coach Bill Self told the national media on Monday. “So two hard games (this week on-road), but winnable games if we go and play well. We’re going to have to play very well.”
Self’s comments to the media were referring to Oklahoma forward Tanner Groves, an Eastern Washington transfer, who now is part of the Sooners roster. Groves, a 6-10, 235-pound senior, scored 35 points on 11-of-18 shooting (5-of-11 from three-point range) against the No. #3 seed Jayhawks in the College Basketball National Championship tournament in Indianapolis.
Groves is averaging a team-leading 13.1 points (on 57.3% shooting) and 6.0 rebounds. Tanner’s brother, Jacob Groves, also transferred from Eastern Washington and averaged 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds for the Sooners this season.
The Sooners played at a high level during the team’s non-conference portion of their schedule, winning 10 of its 12 games. The Sooners lost to Utah State and Butler by a combined seven points. The Sooners also recorded a December 1 victory over then-No. 14 Florida.
Oklahoma averages 72.4 points per game and owns a 10.3 point average margin of victory this season. The Sooners surrender 62.1 points per game but have turned the ball over on over 20 percent of their offensive possessions.
The Sooners are 1-3 in true road games but have a perfect 2-0 home record in conference play.
Kansas vs Oklahoma Prediction
The Jayhawks have struggled in recent trips to Norman with just one against the spread cover across the last five games at Lloyd Noble Center.
The offensive explosiveness of this Kansas squad and the tempo they play at presents challenges for the Sooners. The Oklahoma squad has found themselves in foul trouble against teams that play an adjusted tempo of 68.4 or more, per Kenpom’s advanced analysis of college basketball. The Jayhawks Adj. Tempo rating is 70.6. The lack of bench depth, particularly backcourt reserves, who are over their heads against the depth of the Jayhawks.
Kansas’ offense scored fast and furious in the victory over West Virginia on Saturday. The Jayhawks scored 52 points in the second half of the win over the Mountaineers and have exceeded the century mark this season in the 102-65 rout of Missouri.
The WagerTalk pick to click for tonight’s Big 12 matchup in Norman is a play on the Jayhawks to win and cover the bookmakers closing number.
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Kansas vs Oklahoma Preview from GoldSheet
The Jayhawks visit Norman after breaking through for 52 second-half points in an 85-59 demolition of West Virginia on Saturday and look to continue building momentum on the road against the slumping Sooners. Although these Mountaineers aren’t as good as other Bob Huggins’ teams, annihilating them and getting a career-high 23 points from Jalen Wilson is a step in the right direction for a KU team that nearly lost to Iowa State at home and did fall to Texas Tech in the game before that. Despite a strong 14-2 record, Bill Self’s team hasn’t been dominant or consistent. Point guard Remy Martin has been hampered by injuries and didn’t even play on Saturday due to a bone bruise in his knee.
This road test reunites Kansas with the Groves brothers, Tanner and Jacob, who combined for 58 points in last year’s NCAA Tournament opener while they were at Eastern Washington. The duo have been catalysts on Porter Moser’s first Oklahoma squad, which has hit its first rough patch in dropping three of four, including two in a row for the first time. The Sooners followed up a loss at Texas with an OT upset loss at TCU but look to get back on track in a building where they’ve gone 8-1. Backup big man Ethan Chargois won’t play for OU, but after averaging 55 points over the last two games, Moser will want his team to be aggressive against KU as they look to regain their scoring prowess. The Jayhawks already bounced back against West Virginia after their two lowest-scoring games of the season, so the expectation here is that the total of 143 should be surpassed.
NCAAB Stat Sheet
Each day, WagerTalk handicapper Ralph Michaels puts together his College Basketball Stat Sheet, which offers a head-to-head comparison for how teams are performing in a number of key areas heading into a game. Check out Tuesday’s sheet, with notes on tonight’s Kansas vs Oklahoma contest.
Happy Hour Tip-Off Show
Get your daily fix of college hoops betting information with Joe Raineri and a rotating panel of handicapping guests. The Happy Hour Tip-Off Show will broadcast Monday through Friday at 1:45pm ET / 10:45am PT. Pull up a barstool and join us as we break down tonight’s college basketball card, including this Kansas vs Oklahoma clash, from a sports betting perspective.
WagerTalk Live Odds Screen
WagerTalk’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the college basketball point spreads, moneylines, first half lines and betting percentages for all of Tuesday’s NCAAB games, including this Kansas vs Oklahoma showdown, from your desktop or phone.
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