Villanova's ATS Record Against Kansas Is Impressive (Jay Wright Owns Bill Self)
By Reed Wallach
The 2022 Final Four will feature recognizable teams to the viewing public, but also to each other.
While all eyes will be fixated on Duke-North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova pose two teams that are the epitome of consistency in college basketball and the two teams have faced off against one another under their long time head coaches, Jay Wright and Bill Self.
Who has the upper hand when Villanova and Kansas meet on Saturday evening from a coaching standpoint? Let's take a look back at this rematch from the 2018 Final Four.
Villanova's Jay Wright has Kansas' Bill Self Number
Villanova is 5-3 straight up (SU) and 7-1 against the spread (ATS) when facing off against Self's Kansas teams. The two faced for the first time in 2004 and most recently squared off in December 2019.
While the teams have had different compositions, Wright and Self have been fixtures on the sideline for both of these matchups. Wright has the leg up with his Big East club over Self over a relatively large sample size, but the betting market is favoring Self quite a bit in this matchup.
WynnBET Sportsbook has the Jayhawks as 4-point favorites in New Orleans with a total of 133.5.
Nova is down key starter Justin Moore, who suffered an Achilles injury at the end of the team's win over Houston in the Elite 8 which is being impacted in this line. For reference, KenPom projects this game as a 1-point spread.
Wright's team has been iffy as an underdog this season, 2-3-1 ATS, but did just notch a win over Houston as 3-point underdogs. Is this line overreacting to the loss of Moore? If there's one coach that can get his team ready to beat the Self-led Jayhawks, it 'GQ Jay' given his overwhelming success over the past nearly 2 decades.
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