The 1-seed Kansas Jayhawks basketball team remains in Tulsa to play 9-seed Illinois on Sunday night in the second round* of the 2011 NCAA tournament bracket. The story line in this game is KU head coach Bill Self facing his former team in his former city.
*Yes, I know they now call it the third round. I think that's dumb. It's the second round.
The Jayhawks are expected to win this game according to the latest college basketball odds. KU is an eight point favorite and I'd say that's about right. Admittedly, I haven't watched a lot of Illinois basketball this year but I have seen a lot of KU basketball.
Not many teams, if any, have a real answer for Marcus and Markieff Morris down low. Your best hope is that both of them are off their game. All of KU's big men -- the Morris twins and Thomas Robinson -- can shoot 15-footers and Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed can be money from the three-point line so you can't simply collapse on the big guys all game. The best way to put it is that they can play you -- and beat you -- any way you want.
So KU is an eight point favorite and I tend to think they'll go over that. They have a tendency to go on ridiculous 20-4 runs that results in a knockout punch and I suspect they'll do the same against Illinois.