Kansas (#3, Midwest, Minneapolis pod)

vs. North Dakota State (#14)
Fri. 3/20 at 12:30 pm
Vegas Line: -10

Thanks to Vegas Watch for providing these graphs that measure the moving average of a team’s spread (moving avg.) over time vs. the spread for each individual game (indiv).  If a team’s moving average is higher than zero, then Vegas currently has a higher opinion of them than Pomeroy, and vice versa.

General Profile

Location: Lawrence, Kansas
Conference: Big 12, at-large
Coach: Bill Self, 167-39
08-09 record: 25-7 (14-2)
Last 12 Games: 10-2
Best Win: 90-65, Missouri, 3/1/2009
Worst Loss: 61-60, Massachusetts, 12/13/2008
Off. Efficiency Rating: 114.7 (19th nationally)
Def. Efficiency Rating: 89.5 (16th nationally)

Nuts n Bolts

Star Players:  Cole Aldrich: 14.6 ppg/10.6 rpg; Sherron Collins: 18.3 ppg/5.0 apg
Unsung Hero: Tyshawn Taylor: 10 ppg
Potential NBA Draft Picks: Cole Aldrich: 6^th overall in 2010 / Sherron Collins: 36^th overall in 2010
Key Injuries: No injuries to report
Depth: 27.3% mins. (250th nationally)
Achilles Heel: The current group of Jayhawks are relatively unproven in tournament play. No starters return from 2008’s championship run, and KU bowed out early in their preseason tournament against Syracuse in November and last week to Baylor in the Big 12 conference tournament.
Will Make a Deep Run if…: Cole Aldrich is involved in the offense. In Kansas’ last three losses, Aldrich is averaging 8 points. In their wins over the same time span, Aldrich has averaged 17.8 points per game.
Will Make an Early Exit if…: An inexperienced Kansas team meets a senior-led team in the first weekend that’s been dancing before and can match up with Aldrich.

NCAA History

Last Year Invited: 2008 National Champions
Streak:   This is Kansas’ 20^th straight year in the dance
Best NCAA Finish: National Champions in 1952, 1988, 2008
Historical Performance vs. Seed (1985-present): +0.27

Other

Six Degrees to Detroit: Before Kansas won their 1988 title in Kansas City, they had to beat rival Kansas State in Pontiac, Michigan to win the Midwest Regional final.
Distance to First Round Site: 480 miles
School’s Claim to Fame: In 1905, University of Kansas researchers were the first to discover helium.
School Wishes It Could Forget:  The KU football and basketball programs have been under self-imposed probation since 2006, mostly for academic fraud.
Prediction: Though Kansas should win, look for their matchup with NDSU to the best 3 vs. 14 game of 2009, with both teams featuring great offenses and exciting players. Though, a wilder game than that will likely be six-seed West Virginia knocking off KU in the Round of 32.

Major RTC stories:  Big 12 Wrap & Tourney Preview
Profile Written by:   Matt the Intern of RTC.

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 4:14 am by rtmsf and is filed under 2009 Tourney Preview. Tagged: 2009 Tourney Preview, kansas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.