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Ryan Stetson.
Clemson (5) vs. Kansas (1) Odds: March Madness Sweet 16 Prediction
One of the best offences in the country goes head-to-head with one of the hottest defences on Friday night in a Sweet 16 March Madness matchup. Can Clemson put the clamps on Kansas’ attack too?
Kansas coach Bill Self was very complimentary of Clemson’s victory over Auburn and hasn’t seen the best of his Jayhawks yet. The question here is whether Kansas’ grade-A game would be good enough to get past this tricky Clemson team that seems to be hitting its stride at the right time.
NCAA Tournament Odds and Betting Analysis
The Kansas Jayhawks are now set at +650 to win the NCAA Tournament on the March Madness betting board, while the Clemson Tigers are pegged at +5000. The Jayhawks opened as 4-point favourites for Friday’s game and nearly two-thirds of the early betting action is supporting Kansas to cover the spread. The over/under is currently at 143.
The over is 6-2-1 in Kansas’ last nine games and is 4-1 in Clemson’s last five.
Clemson Tigers
If anyone wondered what the Clemson Tigers were made of, they erased those doubts in 20 minutes against Auburn. Clemson went into halftime on a 25-4 run and had a 43-19 lead at the break. From there the Tigers cruised to a 84-53 victory as a 2-point underdog. This club’s defence should put the rest of the NCAA Tournament field on notice. The Tigers held Auburn – a team that averaged almost 82 points per game -without a field goal for 11 minutes at one stretch in their latest victory and allows just over 65 points per game on the year. Clemson will make you work for every bucket, holding its opposition to 40.4 shooting and has five players scoring in double digits.
Kansas Jayhawks
Bill Self isn’t thrilled with his team’s performance so far. The Jayhawks cruised to a win over Penn to kick off the NCAA Tournament and then gutted out a tough 83-79 win over Seton Hall to move on to the Sweet 16. On a night when Devonte’ Graham struggled to get anything going offensively, Kansas’ supporting cast stepped up to rebound from a poor first half. The Jayhawks shot just 41 percent from the floor but finished with four players scoring at least 10 points, paced by 28 from Malik Newman. Kansas hasn’t put it all together in the Tournament yet, but has now won five straight games, covering the spread in all but its win over Seton Hall.
