Iowa State at Kansas Lines, Free Pick & TV Info

Posted by Juan Carlos on Thursday,February 2, 2017 10:59, EDT in

Can you say trap game for No. 3 Kansas? It could be Saturday in Big 12 action as the Jayhawks are off an incredibly tough three-game stretch at No. 18 West Virginia at No. 4 Kentucky and home to No. 2 Baylor on Wednesday. Iowa State is middling Big 12 team hoping to improve its NCAA Tournament resume. Let’s take a look at the college basketball odds for the game.

Iowa State at Kansas Lines, Free Pick & TV Info

When: Saturday, Feb. 4, 2 PM ET
Where: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence
TV: ESPN
Stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Iowa State / Kansas
Opening NCAA Basketball Lines: KU favored by TBA

Why Bet on Iowa State?

The Cyclones are off an 85-72 loss to visiting West Virginia on Tuesday. Nathan Adrian scored a career- high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Tarik Phillip had 15 points for the Mountaineers, who hit 10 3s and forced 16 turnovers in winning their third road game in league play.

Iowa State stayed within striking distance at the start of the second half and even was within four with 10:43 left on a Monte Morris layup for Iowa State. But West Virginia went on a 14-3 run and pulled away. Matt Thomas scored 19 points for Iowa State (13-8, 5-4), which suffered its biggest home loss of the season. Thomas was 6-of- 8 from the field and 5-of- 6 from downtown. Thomas has made 16-of- 22 from 3-point range in his last three games.

Deonte Burton scored 11 points and was ISU’s primary facilitator, dishing out a career-high 10 assists. He joins Monte’ Morris as Cyclones to hand out 10 or more assists in a game this season. Morris dished out two assists to tie Kirk Hinrich (Kansas) at No. 3 on the Big 12’s all-time assist list (668). Morris has played in 126 career games to tie for fourth in school history.

“We had layups and open 3s and shots that these guys (usually) make, and finally West Virginia broke through and made a couple and kind of put us in a tough position and sped us up a little bit,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. “But credit them. They were a better team.”

For the first time since 2011, the Cyclones have lost three home games in a season, and we still have more than a month of hoops left. With Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State making trips to Ames before the regular season concludes, that number could double.

Why Bet on Kansas?

The Jayhawks remain without suspended forward Carlton Bragg Jr., a solid contributor off the bench. He has been granted diversion after being charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. The diversion agreement was reached Wednesday after criminal charges were filed in Lawrence Municipal Court on Monday. It’s not clear what that means for Bragg’s status on the team. Bragg was previously suspended in December for misdemeanor battery charges against a woman that were later dropped.

Freshman Josh Jackson has been named one of 10 watch list finalists for the 2017 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award. Jackson’s 15.7 scoring average is sixth in the Big 12 and first among conference freshmen. Jackson is ninth in the Big 12 in rebounds at 6.7 boards per contest. Jackson leads KU in steals and blocks.

Senior Frank Mason III is only the sixth KU player in school history to rank in the top 19 in career scoring with 1,529 points, and in the top 11 in career assists (493). He joins former KU greats Sherron Collins, Darnell Valentine, Kirk Hinrich, Kevin Pritchard and Tyshawn Taylor.

KU averages 84.3 points per game and has a +13.2 scoring margin. Kansas leads the Big 12 and is ninth nationally with a 49.8 field goal percentage. KU leads the league with a 41.2 3-point field goal percentage, which is ninth in NCAA Division I. KU averages 40.0 rebounds per contest, which also leads the Big 12. KU has a +5.6 rebound margin and also averages 17.0 assists, 7.2 steals and 4.9 blocked shots per contest.

Iowa State at Kansas Free Pick: Kansas Jayhawks

If this line is above 15, take the points. If not, go Kansas.