Kansas Bettors Should be Concerned About Jayhawks as Betting Favorites, Bill Self NCAA Tournament History

The Kansas Jayhawks are the lone No. 1 seed left in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and are hoping to make it a fourth Final Four since head coach Bill Self took over in 2003.

The Jayhawks won the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament, earned a top seed in the Midwest, but are they on upset alert against upstart Miami, the No. 10 seed who has looked fantastic in their run to the Elite 8.

Currently, Kansas is 6-point favorites with a total of 147.5.

The Hurricanes have been fantastic as an underdog this season, and has a veteran coach in Jim Laranaga, who has experience making a Final Four with George Mason in 2006. On the opposing side, Self and the Jayhawks have struggled to put their competition away all season with an overrated defense, including two non covers in their last two NCAA Tournament games.

Let's look back at Self's track record in recent history as a tourney coach and the Jayhawks this season and see if there's any signals to make a valuable bet on Sunday.

Bill Self, Kansas Struggle as Favorites in NCAA Tournament

The Jayhawks failed to pull away from both Creighton and Providence in the Round of 32 and Sweet 16 respectively, and Kansas' defense has kept foes in games all season. The team is 22nd in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency metric, but the shot profile of their opponents hint that regression may be settling in, ranking 47th according to ShotQuality.

Kansas went 14-16 against teh spread (ATS) as a favorite this season, 9-9 as a single digit chalk.

While there is no denying the talent of Ochai Agbaji and the Jayhawks offense, the team has been unable to close out games with their defense.

This is par for the course with Self in this spot, who has struggled in recent memory despite a long platform of success in Lawrence.

Can Miami, a vaunted offensive team that has a fantastic coach as an underdog and has thrived in this spot this season, make it three straight non covers for the Jayhawks?

Jim Larranaga's History of an Underdog Suggests Miami Worthy of a Bet

As I mentioned earlier, Larranaga has plenty of success bringing double digit seeds to March success with his history at George Mason, and now will look to breakthrough with Miami.

The Hurricanes are 8-2 this season against the spread as an underdog, winning 7 of those games outright. The team is paced by veteran guard play that is top 30 in effective field goal percentage and top 10 in turnover rate.

If Kansas continues to struggle finding stops late in games, Miami will cover once again as an underdog and put the pressure on the Jayhawks with a bid on the Final Four on the line.

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