Despite Short Bench, Jayhawks Open As Big Road Favorites vs Cowboys

No. 3 Kansas was able to win on Saturday with what was essentially a six-man rotation, but Monday’s game will be its second in three days, it’s at Oklahoma State and it still has a shortened roster — should bettors still trust the Jayhawks as big road favorites?

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Kansas is clearly the superior team when compared to Oklahoma State this season and the Jayhawks have won six of their last eight meetings, so it’s not overly surprising to see them open as 9-point road favorites … even with the suspensions. An Sportsbook total of 133 seems high, considering Oklahoma State is one of the country’s worst offensive teams, while Kansas has been playing a lot of lower-scoring games recently. 

Kansas News & Notes

After a crazy week (to put things mildly), Kansas managed to win its portion of the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday, defeating Tennessee 74-68.

Head coach Bill Self said his team played “tired” during that game, both emotionally from the media attention they garnered all week following a brawl last Tuesday and physically due to the Jayhawks playing without suspended forwards David McCormack and Silvio De Sousa. 

Kansas only had six players who played more than five minutes on Saturday. Having to turn around and play two days later on the road, and again not having McCormack and De Sousa available, expect Self to employ a deeper rotation on Monday or run the risk of having extremely fatigued players in the final minutes — which doesn’t bode well for a Kansas team that is 1-5 ATS in its last six games at Oklahoma State. 

Oklahoma State News & Notes

The good news for Oklahoma State is it also won its Big 12/SEC Challenge game on Saturday, a 73-62 road win against Texas A&M that snapped a six-game losing streak. The bad news is it now has to return to conference play, which has absolutely been devastating for the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State is winless within the Big 12, sitting dead last in the conference at 0-6 and sporting an overall record of just 10-9. Its Achilles heel has been an offense that is ranked 313th in the nation and is averaging just 57.5 points per game in Big 12 play.

Not only has its poor offensive showings led to SU losses piling up, but Oklahoma State has also been dismal against the spread: it has covered just twice in its last nine games and is 2-8 ATS in 10 home games this season.

Betting Pick: UNDER 133

Oklahoma State can’t score and Kansas is playing with a shortened bench. That doesn’t sound like the recipe for a high-scoring game, so I’ll take the UNDER.