College Hoops: No 1 Kansas vs No 10 Texas

Monday, February 08, 2010

By BetUS.com

A Big 12 clash features the number one team in the nation, the Kansas Jayhawks, visiting the two point underdog Texas Longhorns at 9:00 PM ET at Frank Erwin Center in the best game to watch this Monday Night.

College Basketball Odds

Kansas Jayhawks -2
Texas Longhorns +2

The Longhorns are having a tough month losing four of the last six games after winning the first 17 in the regular season. Texas lost surprising against Baylor (80-77) and most recently against Oklahoma (80-71), losses that were not on the “budget”.

In three of those four games the key in beating Texas was stopping the team’s leading scorer Damion James; he was held by the defenses to 14 points or less, and James must score if the Longhorns want to win.

Texas needs to get Avery Bradley more involved in the scoring department but most importantly they need Dexter Pittman to help with the boards as he is barely averaging 6.2 rebounds per game, a poor number for a 6-10 player.

"(Texas will) play so hard against us on Monday," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "They'll play hard because this is a game that can kind of right their ship."

Kansas is one of the best and complete teams in the nation. They play a zone defense which makes it hard to score against them. The Jayhawks barely allow 62.7 points per game and keep in mind they arrive to this game with an 8 game winning streak.

Sherron Collins is the Jayhawks best offensive weapon as he average 15.6 points per game but you can’t rely only on stopping him; you also need to shutdown either Marcus Morris or Xavier Henry; both average 13 points per game.

"This is one of those games that we circle on the schedule," said Kansas' Sherron Collins.

Morris is coming off an amazing game against Nebraska last Saturday. He scored 20 points and added 11 rebounds to beat the Cornhuskers 75-64.

Consider also Kansas is 8-0 in the conference and 8-0 since they loss 76-68 to Tennessee on January 10th, their only lost of the season so far.

The Jayhawks are the number rank squad in the country but most people seem to put Syracuse over them as a much complete team, if they want to make a statement tonight is the right stage to do it.

BetUS Sportsbook Expert College Hoops Pick: Kansas will cover.