Missouri at Kansas: Basketball Picks & Predictions

Written March 1, 2009 by Jay Horne

missouri-kansas-picks-030109 The Big 12 regular season race is in full stride after the Kansas Jayhawks knocked off Oklahoma earlier this week to hand the Sooners their 2nd straight loss moving what many believed was the dominant team in the conference down the standings. Kansas now sits on top of the Big 12 standings with a one game advantage. Missouri and Oklahoma are tied in 2nd at 11-2 in the conference. Kansas is in great shape to close out the deal, but they must get the win this Sunday over Missouri or things will be all square between the top 3 teams. Missouri on the other hand has a great chance as well despite their tough remaining schedule. The Tigers visit the Jayhawks and then travel to Oklahoma. However, if the Tigers can pull off wins in both contests that could find themselves alone in first place. Odds makers have made Kansas a 4.5 point favorite over Missouri.

Missouri beat the Jayhawks in their first meeting this year in exciting fashion. The Tigers Zaire Taylor knocked down a 10 foot jumper with 1.3 seconds to go to score the victory over the Jayhawks in the first meeting that resulted in a final of 62-60. Missouri actually trailed by 14 points in that contest at the half before staging the comeback. Missouri is a team that has quietly put together a strong season maybe better than most had expected. The Tigers are fresh off a big win over Kansas State on Wednesday night when they knocked off the Wildcats 94-74. Missouri will have the chance to really shock the nation if they could pull of wins against Kansas and Oklahoma back to back and steal the Big 12 regular season title.

The Tigers have averaged a strong 82.6 points on the offensive side of the ball this season ranking 5th in the nation in terms of scoring offense. DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons are the two big men responsible for much of the damage. Carroll sports a healthy 17 point average this season while Lyons has made a beneficial supporting cause averaging 14 points per game. The Tigers really did not shoot the ball well in their last meeting with Kansas only hitting 35% (21-59) from the floor and 14% (2-14) from 3 point range. However, the Tigers did play defense fairly well especially in the 2nd half and they forced the Jayhawks to turn the ball over 26 times on the night. Missouri will attempt to wreak havoc with some flashy defense again this Sunday and score their 2nd victory over the Jayhawks this season. You can bet Missouri +5 right now at SportsInteraction.

Kansas has played really well during the 2nd half of the season. Outside of their loss to Missouri, the Jayhawks had not suffered another loss since the first week of January which is more than 13 games ago. The Jayhawks sport a strong scoring defense that has held teams to 64.1 points per game this season ranking 3rd in the Big 12. Kansas really surprised some people when they handled Oklahoma despite being without their leading star Blake Griffin. In that game, Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor both scored 26 points to lead the Jayhawks in the big win. Kansas would love to have similar efforts this Sunday and make up for a poor shooting performance in their last meeting with Missouri.

Kansas has won 4 straight games since their loss to Missouri. The Jayhawks have been a team that has been fairly strong in the rebounding aspect of the game all season. Kansas actually dominated Missouri on the glass in the last meeting 42-26 in terms of rebounds. However, the Jayhawks simply could not hit shots and hold onto the ball, which resulted in the loss. If Kansas can dominate the boards like the last game, and avoid any disastrous shooting performances the Jayhawks should be very tough to beat. Kansas came out in the last meeting strong holding Missouri to only 16 points in the first half and perhaps they could put together another strong performance. This time for two halves of play.

Pick – Take Kansas -4.5

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