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Previewing Kansas-West Virginia and Virginia-Notre Dame

Big 12 Basketball Tournament - Championship

KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 12: Frank Mason III #0 of the Kansas Jayhawks passes around Jevon Carter #2 and Nathan Adrian #11 of the West Virginia Mountaineers in the first half during the championship game of the Big 12 Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 12, 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

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No. 2 Kansas at No. 18 West Virginia, 7:00 p.m. (ESPN): The big game of the night lost a little bit of its luster this week, as West Virginia not only dropped a home game to Oklahoma but followed that up with a loss at Kansas State.

The Mountaineers have the nation’s most disruptive press, but it hasn’t been all that effective in recent weeks. In their last three games, West Virginia has committed more turnovers than they have forced. That’s not a good sign for a team that relies on the easy baskets they can get in transition to avoid having to rely on playing half court basketball, where they struggle.

And here’s the thing about these Kansas Jayhawks: I’m not sure there is a worse matchup for West Virginia when they are struggling to get their pressure clicking. I’ve always believed there is a ceiling for teams playing the way that Press Virginia plays for one, simple reason: They rely on their opponents making mistakes to win. Good teams have good guards, and good guards are good because they don’t make mistakes.

Kansas?

They have the current favorite for National Player of the Year in Frank Mason III as well as Devonte’ Graham, a potential first round pick that, if he was allowed to play on the ball full time, could probably be an all-Big 12 point guard. And that’s before you consider that, these days, the Jayhawks are essentially playing a four-guard lineup, rotating through Josh Jackson, LaGerald Vick and Svi Mykhailiuk.


  • PREDICTION: I like Kansas to win this game, even though I know that we are just two weeks removed from these same Mountaineers forcing 29 turnovers in a 21-point win over No. 1 Baylor, handing the Bears their only loss of the season. Kansas opened at (+6), but if you can still get them at (+3.5), I think you have to take it.

No. 12 Virginia at No. 14 Notre Dame, 8:00 p.m. (ACC Network): This is such a fascinating matchup of styles all around. Notre Dame is one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams, and the way that Virginia defends - their Packline Defense - encourages opponents to try and shoot jumpers over the top of the defense.

But Virginia is also terrific at cutting off penetration into the lane, particularly when their opponents are running ball-screen actions, and Notre Dame’s offense is built around drive-and-kick threes that come off of high ball-screens involving Matt Farrell. And frankly, I don’t know if there are five teams in college basketball that have coaches that are better and drilling home game-plans and systems than Tony Bennett and Mike Brey.

All in all, this should be a fun, well-played basketball game, even if it isn’t as uptempo as you might like.


  • PREDICTION: Notre Dame is leading the ACC right now, yet they are an underdog at home to a Virginia team that isn’t the same Virginia team that we’ve seen in recent season? Give me the Irish (+1).

No. 1 Villanova at Marquette, 8:00 p.m. (FS1): Marquette has one of the nation’s best offenses and they are coming off of a win at Creighton where they put up 102 points on the Bluejays. That said, the Golden Eagles are not good defensively, and not only will the Wildcats be able to matchup with Marquette’s small-ball lineups, but they’ll be able to take advantage of that lack of defensive discipline on the other end of the floor.


  • PREDICTION: I like Villanova (-5), but I love the over (+/- 151.5).

No. 21 Purdue at Michigan State, 7:00 p.m. (ESPN2): This is a huge game for Michigan State, who is much closer to the bubble than Spartan fans are used to being. But the Boilermakers have a distinct advantage in one spot: the paint. That’s because Caleb Swanigan, who has played at an all-american level this season, decommitted from Michigan State and went to Purdue. Watching him go up against Nick Ward should be entertaining for those that like seeing big, physical land warriors do battle on the block.


  • PREDICTION: I think Tom Izzo works his magic and Michigan State (+2) wins outright.