Texas Southern vs. Kansas: NCAA Tournament odds, final score predictions from ESPN, KenPom
No. 1 Kansas tips off the last game of the night on Thursday versus No. 16 Texas Southern in round-one NCAA tournament play. Ahead of tipoff, here is how to watch Kansas (28-6) versus Texas Southern (19-12), in addition to predictions from both ESPN and KenPom, and the Las Vegas odds.
How to watch Texas Southern vs Kansas
Time: 9:57 p.m. ET
Location: Dickies Arena (Fort Worth, Texas)
Network: truTV
Vegas odds
According to VegasInsider, the Jayhawks are 21.5-point favorites in their first game of March Madness versus Texas Southern. The over/under for the game is 145.
ESPN BPI prediction
ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index (BPI) measures team strength and predicts future performances across the sport. The BPI prediction from ESPN has Kansas with a 96.8% chance of earning a decisive victory over the Tigers on Thursday night. It’s the worst/most lopsided matchup of the night, based on ESPN’s quality rating. San Francisco versus Murray State is the most competitive game of the night.
Projected winner: Kansas
Predicted point differential: 22.3
Matchup Quality: 66.7
KenPom prediction
KenPom is another tool used to predict and project college basketball results. Like ESPN, KenPom projects Kansas taking the win in Fort Worth, in dominant fashion.
Predicted winner: Kansas
Predicted final score: Kansas 80, Clemson 62
Win probability (for Kansas): 95%
No. 1-seed Kansas begins tournament action versus Texas Southern
March Madness officially gets underway with the first round on St. Patricks Day. The No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks take on the Texas Southern Tigers in the Midwest Region.
To make it to this stage, Texas Southern, led by Johnny Jones, won the SWAC title and took down Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the First Four round. They won 76-67 after an entire game of lead changes. The Tigers pulled away in the final five minutes to advance.
The Kansas Jayhawks are hot off of a Big 12 tournament title. They beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders 74-65.
The winner moves on to the second round and will face the winner between San Diego State (23-8) and Creighton (22-11).