The Kansas Jayhawks are the No. 1 team in the country after winning 16 straight games to close out the regular season, and Bill Self’s team has already ensured that it will be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. No matter what happens in the Big 12 Tournament, the Jayhawks are guaranteed to be on the No. 1 line after posting a 28-3 record in the regular season. That dominance and an established pedigree have sportsbooks doubting that any other team can win the Big 12 Tournament, as the Jayhawks are on the odds-on favorite to cut down the nets this weekend.
Kansas has won nearly half of the Big 12 Tournaments contested to date. The Jayhawks have claimed the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament in 11 of the past 23 seasons, and they have more than twice as many tournament banners as any other program in the Big 12. They have only lost once in conference play this season, and Kansas will have an extra advantage with this tournament taking place in Kansas City.
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2020 Big 12 Tournament odds
- Kansas -125
- Baylor +200
- Texas Tech +600
- West Virginia +800
- Oklahoma +1000
- Texas +2200
- TCU +6600
- Oklahoma State +8000
- Kansas State +12500
- Iowa State +15000
Devon Dotson and Udoka Azubuike are two of the top players in the country. Both players are among the 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, and Kansas is the only team with two players on this list. Azubuike is one of the most efficient scorers in the game, averaging 13.7 points per game while making 74.8 percent of his baskets, and the center is also pulling down 10.5 rebounds per game. As for Dotson, he is averaging 18.1 points per game and is playing excellent defense on opposing guards.
The Jayhawks’ lone conference defeat came at the hands of Baylor, and the Bears are the team with the best chance of upending Kansas per the Big 12 Tournament odds. Baylor was the No. 1 team in the country for much of the season. The Bears reeled off 23 consecutive victories between the middle of November and the middle of February, but this team faltered down the stretch.
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Scott Drew’s Bears lost three of their last five games to close out the season, and they needed overtime to escape an upset against Texas Tech. They have one of the best defenses in the nation with opponents compiling a 45.2 percent effective field goal percentage for this team, and Jared Butler, MaCio Teague, and Freddie Gillespie are all capable weapons with the ball in their hands.
Baylor will likely face TCU in the quarterfinals on Thursday, and that’s a dangerous proposition for the Bears given what happened when these teams met in Fort Worth less than two weeks ago. The Horned Frogs managed to hit nearly 50 percent of their field goals against Baylor, beating the Bears by three points.
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Chris Beard took Texas Tech to the national championship last season, but this year’s team has been hot and cold. The Red Raiders appeared to have finally turned a corner after pulverizing Iowa State in Ames on Feb. 2, yet they closed out the year with four straight losses to finish as the No. 5 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.
Tech is still an excellent defensive team, but the conference is packed with great defensive teams this season. That has placed the onus on the offense, and there have been some issues in this regard. Freshman Jah’Mius Ramsey and junior Davide Moretti have both shined, making a substantial percentage of their threes, but the production from other areas has been lacking. Graduate transfers Chris Clarke and T.J. Holyfield have not lived up to expectations, so the Red Raiders aren’t likely to upend Kansas in the semifinals if they get past Texas on Thursday.
West Virginia may be the No. 6 seed, but the Mountaineers are one of the best teams in the Big 12. They are only the No. 6 seed by way of losing a four-way tiebreaker, and WVU is favored per the CBB betting odds against Oklahoma in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The Mountaineers lost six of their last nine games to finish the regular season, but this team is much better than you might think by simply looking at the record. WVU is rated the No. 10 team in the nation by Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, placing the Mountaineers ahead of Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Texas by a substantial margin. Their depth and style of play bodes well for West Virginia in a tournament like this, too, as teams with thinner benches will have a more difficult time playing on consecutive nights.