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The Harvard Crimson take on the Kansas Jayhawks. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Harvard Kansas prediction and pick.
The Kansas Jayhawks are trying to defend their national championship. They have played only twice since Dec. 1 to deal with final exams and the other parts of life off the court in the weeks before Christmas. This is one final tune-up before Big 12 play, a chance for coach Bill Self to work on a few points of emphasis with his team and play his reserves a lot to give them meaningful minutes before the starters shoulder the workload in conference action.
The two games Kansas has played since Dec. 1 have been great outings. Kansas won both games by more than 20 points. The Jayhawks blitzed Missouri on the road and then hammered Indiana at home. They scored 84 or more points in both games and held both opponents to 67 points or fewer. They played complete games, displaying quality at both ends of the court. Kansas's offense struggled in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament against Wisconsin and then Tennessee, but the Jayhawks have looked far better at that end of the floor in December. KU has only one loss this season, so it's hard to say the Jayhawks are behind schedule. They're pretty much where they expected to be in terms of wins and losses. What's especially good is that they're playing well and will carry a fresh, rested team into the new year.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Harvard-Kansas College Basketball odds.
College Basketball Odds: Harvard-Kansas Odds
Harvard Crimson: +21.5 (-110)
Kansas Jayhawks: -21.5 (-110)
Over: 138.5 (-115)
Under: 138.5 (-105)
Why Harvard Could Cover the Spread
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The Crimson are 8-4 this season, and one of their better wins came earlier this week on the road at UC Irvine. Keep in mind that Irvine won at Oregon by 13 points earlier this season. Irvine is coached by Russell Turner, regarded as one of the better mid-major coaches in the country. Harvard was able to go into Irvine and stop the Anteaters by holding them to 57 points. Harvard played good defense and was strong on the glass, getting crucial late-game boards to prevent Irvine from completing a comeback. Harvard had a lead of six to nine points for much of the second half. Irvine rallied and sliced that margin to two points, at 55-53, but Harvard was able to get stops and grab big rebounds to put the game away. Harvard was able to win in spite of a bad shooting night and a lot of turnovers. That's the mark of a good team: When a lot of things aren't going well, and Plan A isn't working, a team finds a Plan C to win on the road against a decent opponent.
If Harvard can start shooting 3-pointers better, it has a great — not good, but great — chance of covering a very large spread on the road just before Christmas against a Kansas team which might not play with supreme intensity.
Why Kansas Could Cover the Spread
Kansas is coming off two really strong performances, and the Jayhawks are fresh. They haven't played a lot of games in December, which is a smart scheduling move by Bill Self. He knows that mid-December, pre-Christmas basketball produces all sorts of crazy results every year, with this season being no exception. On an almost-daily basis in December, at least one double-digit underdog wins outright or at least takes the heavy favorite to the final minute of regulation. Kansas didn't want to deal with that … until now. KU players shouldn't be distracted. They haven't overplayed. They should be able to focus in on this contest.
Also, as we noted above, Harvard has not shot well in recent games. Harvard was 3 of 28 on 3-pointers against Howard, and then 4 of 22 in the win over UC Irvine. That's a combined 7 of 50, or 14 percent. Harvard has also committed 31 turnovers in its last two games. The Crimson are going to get crushed if they don't dramatically improve … but playing against Kansas suggests they won't be able to improve to the extent they need to cover the spread.
Final Harvard-Kansas Prediction & Pick
This is a game in which Kansas is going to blow the doors off a poor-shooting Harvard team.
Final Harvard-Kansas Prediction & Pick: Kansas -21.5
