Kansas Basketball: As game nears, few experts are picking Jayhawks

The odds are against Kansas Basketball, much as they were all season. The Jayhawks are underdogs by a small margin with few experts picking them.

Kansas Basketball has done plenty this season to earn respect. They’ve won their Conference Championship for the 14th straight year, won the Big 12 tournament, and made it here, to the Final Four. Still, after all that, after proving one expert after another wrong, they’re going to have to do it one more time, at least one more time.

Vegas has Villanova as a five point favorite going into Saturday. At the time of typing these words out, ESPN has the Nova Wildcats with a 72.4% chance to win the game. That isn’t even close folks. No matter where you look, you’ll find Villanova being picked to win against Kansas.

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The Jayhawks are used to being the underdog, which is a different feeling for Kansas. More often than not, they are not in the underdog role.

At usatoday.com four of five experts chose Nova. All four have Nova winning the title. The one that picked Kansas has them winning the whole thing as well. Forbes magazine has the Jayhawks behind both Nova and Michigan as far as the odds of winning the Championship.

Only five of 23 experts at ESPN picked Kansas, Fran Fraschilla among those five. Each expert at BleacherReport.com picked against the Jayhawks as well, which definitely disappoints me. Even the great Dick Vitale picked Nova.

Gary Parrish is one expert that picked Kansas to win it all. He just feels like there is something special with this Jayhawks squad that will not only lift them up past Nova, but he also has Kansas winning the whole thing.

So once again, the Jayhawks are going to have to prove the nation wrong. After surfing the internet for expert picks, only about 10% have the Jayhawks winning. Mathematics isn’t my strong suit either, so I may be ignorantly kind to Kansas with that percentage.

Bill Self will once again have to prove to the world that he can out-coach the best of them, heck, he did so against the great coach K just a week ago. Devonte’ Graham will have to prove he is the best floor general on the court at any given time, again. Malik Newman will have to prove he isn’t just a fluke, again. Svi Mykhailiuk will have to prove he can play all aspects of the game, again. Udoka Azubuike will have to prove yet again that he is the physical force down low in college basketball.

Former Jayhawk Scot Pollard picks Kansas to win, as seen above. He feels as if Silvio De Sousa will be the key to winning Saturday night. Leave it a former big man to key on the big guys as a key to victory. It should be a blast to watch those three call the game over on TNT. Pollard also believes the earth is round, so he knows his stuff.

The Jayhawks will have to prove themselves worthy one more time. My expert pick, if I dare mention myself in that company, is that Kansas finds a way once again, proving everyone wrong, again. The Jayhawks continue to play some of their best basketball, winning this one by six. 87-81. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

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Besides, with the likes of Rob Riggle, Dave Armstrong and Scot Pollard calling the game, how could Kansas lose this one?

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