The Kansas Jayhawks will face the West Virginia Mountaineers in college basketball on Saturday afternoon. The Jayhawks are slight favorites on the road here, as they look to build on a dramatic win in overtime in their last outing. To do that, they will need to take down a West Virginia team that is also coming off its first conference win. Here, I break down this matchup and bring you my Kansas vs West Virginia prediction.
Pick: | West Virginia +4 |
Confidence: | 2/5 |
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Kansas (11-4, 1-1 Big 12) enters this game off a thrilling 104-100 overtime win against TCU, overcoming a second-half deficit and leaning on the scoring of Darryn Peterson and supporting efforts from Tre White, Melvin Council Jr., and Flory Bidunga. That performance demonstrated Kansas’s ability to respond under pressure, but the Jayhawks have also shown vulnerability on the road this season with a loss at UCF to open league play. Peterson’s appears to be healthy after some early injury issues and he will try to help his team get a much-needed win in this spot.
West Virginia (10-5, 1-1 Big 12) has been solid in Morgantown, posting an unbeaten home mark to start this season. The Mountaineers used a gritty defensive approach to secure a win over Cincinnati in their first Big 12 home game, holding the Bearcats to just 60 points.
Guard Honor Huff has emerged as a primary offensive option, and West Virginia’s ability to limit opponents’ scoring inside will be central to their chances as they are tasked with slowing down Bidunga. While the Mountaineers suffered a tough loss at Iowa State and have been inconsistent away from home, they defend well and will pose matchup challenges for Kansas’s perimeter shooting at home.
Score Projection: Kansas 69 – West Virginia 68
Win Probability: Kansas 65%, West Virginia 35%
This Big 12 contest has all the ingredients of a close, competitive game that comes down to execution in the second half. West Virginia will make this an ugly, defensive battle and that should help them to cover the spread, even if the Jayhawks end up winning this game in the end. I will take the points with the Mountaineers in this Saturday afternoon clash.
Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.
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