The Kansas Jayhawks are a No. 1 seed while the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers are a Cinderella story at this year's NCAA Tournament. However, the schools share a betting line at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com for their respective Final Four matchups Saturday.
The Jayhawks and the Ramblers are both pegged as 5-point underdogs on the Final Four odds for Saturday night. Loyola-Chicago is first on the floor in San Antonio, facing off against the Michigan Wolverines. The late game then sees Kansas taking on the Villanova Wildcats.
Loyola-Chicago emerged from the South Region of the bracket as a No. 11 seed on the back of four straight upset victories, starting with a 64-62 win over the No. 6 Miami Hurricanes as 1.5-point underdogs. The Ramblers then shocked No. 3 Tennessee with a 63-62 victory in the Round of 32 as 5-point underdogs, then got past No. 7 Nevada 69-68 in the Sweet Sixteen as 1.5-point underdogs. Loyola-Chicago then picked up its largest win of the tournament in the Elite Eight, cruising past No. 9 Kansas State by a score of 78-62 as 1.5-point underdogs.
The No. 3 Wolverines won the West with a 58-54 victory over No. 9 Florida State in the Elite Eight in which they just fell short of covering as 4.5-point favorites. That dropped Michigan to 2-2 against the spread during the tournament, as they covered against No. 14 Montana (61-47) in the first round and No. 7 Texas A&M (99-72) in the third round but fell short against No. 6 Houston (64-63) in the Round of 32; Michigan was favored by 3.5 points against Houston.
Over in the second matchup top seeds collide Saturday as No. 1 Kansas faces No. 1 Villanova. The Jayhawks needed OT to knock off No. 2 Duke 85-81 in the Elite Eight on Sunday, in a game in which they were 3-point underdogs. Kansas covered a 14-point spread against Penn in a 76-60 win in the first round of the Big Dance, but failed to pay off for bettors in their next two games – an 83-79 win over Seton Hall, and an 80-76 win over Clemson.
Villanova had an easier time in their Elite Eight game on Sunday, rolling over No. 3 Texas Tech 71-59 and covering the 6-point spread. The Wildcats are a perfect 4-0 ATS in the tournament heading into the Final Four, having no trouble covering the posted spreads in their first four games of the event taking on Radford, Alabama, West Virginia, and then Texas Tech.
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