The Jayhawks head to Austin with the hopes of taking out an opponent with whom they would appear to match up with extremely well.

Following a few rough season for head man Rick Barnes, Texas has effectively reinvented itself thanks to a great interior and superb defense. This team plays as a collective unit on the defensive end and they rank fifth in the country when it comes to shot blocking ability.

That is an interesting trait given their opponent. Kansas has a frontline good enough to frustrate and take away the edge Texas typically carries with itself against most opponents. Joel Embiid and their slew of talented power forwards should be fine in this game, but the front courts will undoubtedly battle each other relentlessly.

Despite the fact that both squads are built on their front courts, they both love to get out in transition. Both clubs use their shot blocking capabilities to initiate transition chances. I’d expect a game which likely exceeds the 70 possession mark, but scoring could be at a minimum.

But this game could well come down to which guard grouping plays better. Texas has some promising assets there, but they are young. Javan Felix has steadily improved during his 18 or so months in Austin, and freshman Isaiah Taylor has provided a scoring spark. Taylor has scored in double figures in five out of his last six games. He is picking it up during conference play and that helps.

But one major problem for the Longhorns is that they lack pieces at the small forward position. Andrew Wiggins has come on lately, and that is bad news for a Texas club whose most utilized lineups typically feature three guard rotations with Martez Walker or Demarcus Holland joining Felix and Taylor in the back court.

Barnes can opt to go big with 6’9 sophomore Connor Lambert, however. Lambert has logged 20 plus minutes in three of his previous six outings, but he is not the type of athlete who will likely have an easy time dealing with Wiggins.

I have Kansas as five point favorites here. They are coming off a win over Iowa State at home, but this team is cruising along and beginning to fulfill the hype which made them a top five unit in the preseason.

Their offense is currently ranked fourth nationally in overall efficiency. A lot of that has to do with their ability to be extremely effective in getting shots around the basket, but as mentioned, Texas can take that away.

This number opens at four and has since moved down to 3.5 on a handful of books. Taking a road favorite is not something i wish to do here given the inside strength of the Longhorns, but i also wouldn’t advise getting in the way of the freight train that is the Jayhawks.

Keep an eye on this total, however. It opened at 152 and has since moved down into the 149-150 range. I look for a game in the low 70’s and do believe the under poses some value.

Kansas @ Texas Under 150