Rogers' Big Monday SPECIAL ($25!) >> Temple Wins Outright Sunday!
(NCAAB) West Virginia vs. Kansas,
Point Spread: -4.00 | -110.00 Kansas (Home)
Result: Push
The set-up: The 20-5 (8-4 in Big 12) West Virginia Mountaineers will venture into Lawrence, Kansas Monday night and waiting for them will be the 3rd-ranked Jayhawks (23-3 / 10-2 Big 12), who will well-remember the 85-69 whopping that West Virginia handed them back on Jan. 24th in Morgantown.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers are ranked 13th and have bounced back nicely from an 82-75 home loss to Oklahoma State on Feb. 4th, winning 61-50 at Oklahoma and 85-66 at home against Kansas State. West Va. can score (86.0 PPG ranks 10th) and stop opponents from scoring, allowing 65.8 PPG (47th). Five players are bunched in scoring from 11.8-to-9.3 PPG. PG Carter (11.8-4.4-4.3), leads the way, followed by the 6-8 Ahmad (11.6 & 4.1) and the 6-9 Adrian (10.8 & 6.1) plus guards Miles (9.5) and Philips (9.3). Miles is the only non-starter, as the 6-9 Macon (4.8 & 3.0) typically opens each game.

Kansas: The Jayhawks survived a trip to Lubbock on Saturday, escaping with an 80-79 win. Frank Mason III (20.1-4.3-4.9) played through an illness but made just 4 of 13 shots, while scoring only 12 points, He logged a season-low 26 minutes before fouling out with 3:05 remaining but the fact that Kansas survived in "crunch time" without him, can only be good news for the Jayhawks down the road. Mason is a national player-of-the-year candidate but 6-8 freshman Josh Jackson (16.6 & 7.0) is rapidly becoming a star. He scored a career-high 31 points on Saturday, including the game-winning free throw! Kansas averages 83.5 PPG (18th), with increased production at home, where the Jayhawks average 88.2 PPG.

The pick: The NCAA Championship Selection Committee gave the Jayhawks a No. 1 seed – No. 2 overall seed – in the first ever preliminary release of the March Madness bracket on Saturday morning. Maybe of even more importance to the Jayhawks is the fact that Kansas has won 12 consecutive Big 12 titles and with a visit to Baylor on tap for Saturday (and just a one-game lead heading into Monday), this is no time to lose at home. By the way, Kans did lose its last home game, ending a 51-game home winning steak at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas has not lost at home to West Virginia since the Mountaineers joined the conference in 2012-13 and why start now? Kansas is an 8* play.