When you see a prediction, tell us how they picked our game(s) and provide the link. Comment if you'd like. Simple!
Garry Parrish likes us over Michigan in the final. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/villanova-kansas-michigan-and-loyola-chicago-create-an-unusual-but-fun-final-four/ ↗
Bleacher Report‘s Kerry Miller predicts Michigan and Villanova will advance to the national championship. Miller predicts Villanova to beat Kansas, 83-80
Smart betting pick
This should be a dandy of a Final Four bout, but ultimately Villanova is the better team here. The Wildcats are also shooting 78 percent from the free-throw line, and that comes in handy when trying to clinch victories and cover spreads down the stretch. Smart money sides with Villanova.
March Madness betting trends
Villanova is 4-1 ATS in its last five games against Kansas.
The total has gone under in Villanova's last three games against Kansas.
Kansas is 6-1 SU and ATS in its last seven games as an underdog.
I know after the game Bilas, Williams & Greenberg all picked Villanova to win.
FWIW, Sagarin and Massey have Villanova in a close game; I don’t have access to Pomeroy’s prediction.
Ken Pom I think has Nova at 72% to win
Rules for this thread, we can only upvote those who picked KU!
I can see why at least a little, but I see this game as a toss up. I think it's just like Sundays game.
Perhaps KU shouldn’t bother showing up.... Sheesh. 🙄😁
USA Today picking KU over Nova ↗ and then losing to the winner on the left side of the bracket.
@JayHawkFanToo Does that mean under the @wissox rule we give you a thumbs-sideways?
@mayjay There was a slight time where @approxinfinity added a downvote and we decided we were all too nice and friendly with each other to go that route. Just for this thread it'd be nice to have!
Bill Polaski LA Times picks KU to win it all.
KU - Nova features the two best teams, so if you like Nova to beat KU, you like Nova to win the title, and if you like KU over Nova, you are likely picking the Hawks to win it all.
At this point, the predictions and everything kind of go out the window because there are only a couple of games left and, while each team has its strengths, each remaining team also has some pretty apparent flaws. Loyola probably started the tournament with less than a 1% chance to win the national title. But they have a very real chance now. Even if you think they are the worst of the four teams, you have to give them somewhere between a 5% and 10% chance of cutting the nets in the end (~30% chance of beating Michigan, ~20% chance of beating the Kansas/Villanova winner). That's not bad, to be honest.
But the matchups mean more now than the predictions. It's 80 minutes of basketball. It's one guy getting hot for one night (or one guy going cold). It's a bad bounce, or a questionable foul. Heck, three of the four teams heading to San Antonio wouldn't even be making this trip if one shot had gone differently (or two or three). But hey, that's March Madness.
@approxinfinity No, I wasn't advocating for the down vote!
I hope every media outlet picks against KU. Self made a comment in the post game that we had the more TALENTED team. The comment had Devonte laughing. I think coach said that because analysts like Kenny Smith made it a point in their predictions that Duke was the more talented team and I think this team thrives on slights like that. Hell, coach called them soft and members of our fan base counted them out and all they did after that was prove literally everyone wrong.
bmensch1 picked Kansas on 10/15/17 and strongly maintains his position. As much as I enjoy the Kenpom rankings, Sagarin, CBS, ESPN, SI, or whomever experts...I find their selections often flawed.
Source: /topic/7379
Gorilla72 said:
Perhaps KU shouldn’t bother showing up.... Sheesh. 🙄😁
Just like the Puke game.
All good teams like Nova have bad games. The question is when. KU has played solidly and consistently. No...it's not dominant by double digits, but the TT game exposed some things against Nova. I think this could be Nova's bad or down game. I didn't say they're a bad team. They are a team that is open to having a bad game playing at their level.
If you haven't noticed KU is NOT favored much at ALL.
bmensch1 said:
bmensch1 picked Kansas on 10/15/17 and strongly maintains his position. As much as I enjoy the Kenpom rankings, Sagarin, CBS, ESPN, SI, or whomever experts...I find their selections often flawed.
Source: /topic/7379
PHOF!! I agree, we all do better here than others!
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article207109324.html ↗
Not quite a prediction, but a fun look at which states are pulling for which teams.
Look at all those doubters..
5 of 23 pick KU.
Let's prove em wrong once AGAIN
Kiss of death having Fran and Jeff Goodman in our corner??
@BeddieKU23 Fran giving us a 1pt win, I like it.
@BeddieKU23 as long as Obama doesn’t pick us!
@BeddieKU23 Dakich picking Villanova makes me feel very good actually. To be honest, we've had kind of a tough year, obviously playing better recently, but other than the St. Johns loss, at home, Nova's been rolling, except, who are their best wins? Two wins over Xavier, big whoop, one over gonzo. That's it for regular season wins over ranked teams. Of course the tournament has given them wins over TTech and WVU. That's it. Crap, now I'm pissed. Nova's handled the schedule handed them, but it's not hugely impressive.
For us, 8-3 against ranked teams. Freaking ESPN prediction tracker has Nova at a 72% probability. Now I'm really irate, except our chip is growing. Don't fans remember that other than two years ago Nova flames out of the tournament early every year? Just last year these same kids lost to 8th seeded Wisconsin. From 2010 to 2015 they never made it out of the 2nd round losing to such dignitaries as George Mason, St. Mary's, NCState.
Screw these east coast biased doofuses! Jay Wright as someone pointed out is older than Bill Self. Bill Self has accomplished way more. But you just watch. Like 2003, one championship is going to forever etch a mediocre coach in lore as a great coach. Man I'm going to delete this whole thread as my BP is going up by the minute thinking about all this. I hope we put a 2003 type beatdown on Nova, just like they did on OU two years ago, just like we did against UNC in 08. Lets rock their chalk all day long!!!
@wissox I just looked at all of the ESPN "expert" picks for both games and it is pretty hilarious. There are more picks for Loyola to beat Michigan than KU to beat Nova. How is this possible? How would an 11 seed have a better shot of beating a 3 seed than a 1 seed vs. a 1 seed?
I am not sure why I care. Our guys should just go out and take care of business. For my money we are the team to beat that is left in this tournament.
Kansas 77. Villanova 72.
@joeloveshawks Thanks, now I'm even madder! But like you say, why should we care?
I guess ‘nova earned a shot at KU by beating wvu and tech. Now it’s time to send them packing.