MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2010
#1 Kansas Jayhawks (24-1) vs. Texas A&M Aggies (18-6)
The Texas A&M Aggies will host the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks in a Big 12 showdown at the Reed Arena in College Station on Monday night.
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The last time these two teams met was on Jan 19, 2009, with the Jayhawks cruising to a 73-53 win, stretching its home winning streak to 35 in a row. But this season Reed Arena has become one of the toughest venues in the Big 12, with the Aggies boasting their own 16-game home winning streak.
Kansas won their 10th consecutive contest as they downed visiting Iowa State 73-59 on Saturday. The victory moves them one step closer in the hunt for their sixth straight regular-season conference title. Marcus Morris and Cole Aldrich each had 11 points, while Morris had 10 rebounds and Aldrich 12. Freshman sensation Xavier Henry contributed 16 points in the win. Kansas outscored the visitors inside 34-14 and outrebounded them 47-37, but shot just 42.4 percent –far below their season average of 48.6 percent. The Jayhawks lead the nation in opponents’ shooting percentage (36.5 percent) and are giving up just 62.8 points per game. Tonight’s contest against the Aggies is one of Kansas’ biggest road tests in Big 12 play. The Aggies are tied with Kansas State for second in the league, three games behind the Jayhawks, so a victory is key for maintaining a healthy advantage down the stretch.
But it won’t be a walk in the park as the Aggies have won six of their last seven including a close 67-65 victory at Texas Tech on Saturday. B.J. Holmes scored a team-high of 18 points while Brian Davis added 13 points and 16 rebounds in the win. Senior guard Donald Sloan is averaging a team-high 18.3 ppg this season helping his Aggies to generate an average of 73.4 points per game. Granted they are 3-4 this season against Top 25 squads, and probably aren’t the most skilled team, but as long as they can milk what they can out of their offense, their defense is usually good enough to keep them in games, holding opponents to 65.6 ppg on 41.2 percent shooting from the field.
The odd makers have the Jayhawks as –8 ½ -point favorites in this one.
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The Aggies will have a difficult time containing a deep and talented Jayhawks squad, while producing enough offense to match up offensively.
I expect the Jayhawks to win this one by double digits.
- Kansas is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games
- Kansas is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Kansas’s last 7 games
- Kansas is 3-6-1 ATS in its last 10 games on the road
- Texas A&M is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games
- Texas A&M is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games
- The total has gone OVER in 4 of Texas A&M’s last 5 games
- Texas A&M is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
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