Top 25 Matchup Kicks Off Big College Hoops Day

Kansas vs. Iowa State, 1:30 ET

Basketball has been so interesting this season. One of the big complaints about the NBA (one of the legitimate ones, at least) is that there are only about four to six teams that have legitimate chances to win the NBA championship. However, with college hoops, there are at least a dozen teams that could win March Madness. Maybe more if you consider how random that tournament can be and how even most of the teams are. Two of the teams with title aspirations are Kansas and Iowa State, and they face each other this afternoon.

Kansas is 16-3 right now and has been ranked as one of the best teams in the country all season long and remain in the top-10 at the moment. However, today's game highlights an area of opportunity for the Jayhawks, playing in a road arena. Neutral courts haven't been a huge issue (they did lose to Marquette in one game) but when the home crowd is against them and they are having to deal with the loud and raucous fans, it seems they don't play as well. They only beat Indiana by four points on in Indiana, they then lost to UCF by five points, and they lost to West Virginia by six points. Kansas was able to win by 24 points over Oklahoma State in a road game, so it hasn't been a complete disaster. The Jayhawks continue to be led by their star guard Kevin McCullar Jr. who has racked up 20 points per game on the year. They also have Hunter Dickinson, a guy that has been incredibly tough to guard by many schools. The biggest problem with Kansas is they aren't an overly deep team. They only have three guys who score over 10 points per game and only two more that average more than seven points. The entire team averages 79 points per game, so it isn't like there is a large offensive struggle, but there are tons of successful teams that are led by two scorers.

College Hoops dominates Satruday's lineup. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Iowa State has climbed up the ranks this season and now sits at 15-4 on the year and 4-2 within their conference. The Cyclones bost a really strong offense and a solid defense. They average 11.3 steals per game which is one of the more impressive numbers in the country. Offensively they are putting up over 80 points per game and holding opponents to just 61 points. I do need to evaluate their losses though as they've dropped games to Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and BYU. None of those games were on their home floor. This game might be one you could compare to the matchup they had with Houston earlier in the year. Houston, more of a defensive team than Kansas, lost by four in Iowa. The Cyclones were able to lock in and hold Houston to just 53 points while putting up 57 of their own. I think Iowa State might have a tough time handling Dickinson in this game. They have a strong forward, Milan Momcilovic, who can balance some of the scoring, but they will likely need to double him.

If this game was on a neutral court, I have to imagine that Kansas would be a seven-point or more favorite. I think they are the better team, the one that has been tested more often, and should be the team that wins this game. Iowa State is a good team and have been good at home, but I'm not quite sure they match up all that well against Kansas. Take Kansas on the spread in this one.

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