2011 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 – Southwest Region
#1 Kansas Jayhawks vs. #12 Richmond Spiders, Alamodome, San Antonio, TX
Friday, March 25, 2011, 7:27 pm Eastern, TV: TBS
Opening Line: Kansas -10.5
Current Line: Kansas -10.5
Opening Total: 138
Current Total: 136
Money Line: Kansas -750 / Richmond +525
The top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks (34-2) have the easiest road to the Final Four of the remaining teams and will need to guard against overconfidence like they did en route to winning the 2008 national championship. The Jayhawks (-10.5) get the surprising 12th-seeded Richmond Spiders (29-7) in this Southwest Region Sweet 16 matchup on Friday at the Alamodome in San Antonio and would face either #10 Florida State or #11 VCU on Sunday with a victory.
The Spiders have been one of the super sleepers of the NCAA tournament as a popular second-round upset pick against #5 Vanderbilt before getting a favorable third-round game against #13 Morehead State. They routed the Eagles 65-48 last Saturday behind a game-high 19 points from Justin Harper while leading scorer Kevin Anderson added 14. The team is riding a nine-game winning streak into the Sweet 16, beating the spread in every one of them.
As impressive as that run is, Kansas has won 10 games in a row and 16 of 17. The Jayhawks have struggled a bit to cover their games lately though, going 2-5-1 against the spread in their past eight. One of those covers came in a 73-59 win over #9 Illinois last Sunday as 8-point favorites. Markieff Morris led the way with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds while twin brother Marcus added 17 and 12 to power KU.
The Jayhawks have gone 0-5 ATS in their last five games as double-digit favorites while Richmond has not been a double-digit underdog all season. The Spiders were 6.5-point dogs against Purdue back on November 27 and prevailed in a 65-54 victory. They were also 6-point road dogs at Temple on February 17 and got blown out in a 73-53 loss.
Kansas lost at home to Richmond in the only other meeting between the teams in 2004, falling 69-68 as a 14.5-point favorite. That snapped a 52-game home winning streak against unranked opponents for the Jayhawks, who will be squaring off against the lowest seed remaining in the Big Dance. However, the Spiders might be every bit as good as the Davidson team that took Kansas down to the wire in the Elite Eight as a #12 seed three years ago in a 59-57 loss.
“I think everyone is confident,” Richmond guard Cedric Martel said. “We’ve shown in the past we can compete with bigger teams. It’s a great experience to play a number one seed in the tournament. We’re trying to make history.”
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