NCAA Basketball Betting Picks: Kansas Gets Payback vs. Kansas State

The lone game in college basketball Tuesday on the last day of January is from the Big 12 and the Sunflower Showdown as No. 7 Kansas State looks for an improbable season sweep of No. 8 Kansas. Here’s a pick on the NCAAB Odds for that game and a big one from the Mountain West.

No. 7 Kansas State at No. 8 Kansas (-7)

Tip at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Kansas State knocked off Kansas 83-82 in overtime on Jan. 17 in one of the top Big 12 games of the year. Senior Keyontae Johnson’s lob dunk from fellow senior Markquis Nowell with 25 seconds left in overtime proved to be the game-winner. Kansas had one last chance with 11 seconds remaining, but KSU’s Ish Massoud was able to force KU’s Dajuan Harris, Jr., into a turnover on the baseline with only a few seconds left to preserve the victory.

Johnson was among three Wildcats in double figures, as he and reserve Desi Sills scored a team-leading 24 points. The Jayhawks were led by junior Jalen Wilson, whose game-high 38 points tied the Bramlage Coliseum opponent record matching the 38 by Georgia State’s Anton Reese on Nov. 28, 1998. K-State snapped a 7-game losing streak to its longtime rival in the 298th meeting and in the first Top-15 matchup since 2013, while ending Kansas’ 10-game overall winning streak.

K-State (18-3) comes off a 64-50 home win over Florida in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday. The Wildcats held Florida to a season-low 50 points on 31 percent shooting and snapped a 4-game losing streak in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The 50 points tied for an opponent-low, also done in wins over Wichita State and UIW, while it was the lowest field goal percentage by an opponent this season. Johnson, a former Florida player, finished the night with a game-tying 13 points and game-best 11 rebounds for his 18th career double-double and his fifth of the season.

Kansas (17-4) snapped a three-game skid with a 77-68 win at Kentucky on Saturday. Wilson scored 22 points and has scored 113 points over his last four games, which marks the most points by a Kansas player in a four-game stretch since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97. Wilson has scored 20+ points in four straight games and 12 games this season. Wilson has now scored 1,200 career points, passing Svi Mykhailiuk (1,181) and Aaron Miles (1,183) to move to 41st on the Kansas all-time career scoring list. Wilson leads the Big 12 in scoring at 21.4 ppg, which is ninth nationally. Wilson also leads the Big 12 with eight double-doubles, which is 29th nationally.

Kansas leads the overall series with Kansas State, 203-95, and has won seven of the last eight and 15 of the last 17 matchups. Beginning in 2007, Kansas has won the last 16 matchups against Kansas State in Allen Fieldhouse. Pick: Kansas to win but KSU covers

No. 22 San Diego State at Nevada (+2.5)

The late game of the night at 11 PM on CBS Sports Network. SDSU leads the Mountain West at 8-1 in league play and Nevada is still in the hunt at 6-3. The teams played Jan. 10 in San Diego and the Aztecs won 74-65. Matt Bradley had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Lamont Butler added 15 points for No. 23 San Diego State. Keshad Johnson added 11 points for SDSU, which has beaten Nevada nine straight times. SDSU shot 50% while holding Nevada to 39.7%. The Aztecs outrebounded Nevada 33-29 and made 8 of 21 3-pointers.

SDSU (17-4) comes off a 72-51 blowout win over San Jose State on Saturday and returned to the AP Top 25 at No 22. With its appearance in this week’s AP poll, San Diego State is ranked for the 95th week since the start of the 2010-11 season, more than any other program in the state of California in that time frame. The Aztecs finished with just three turnovers against San Jose State, their fewest in the Mountain West era.

San Diego State has won 27 of its last 34 conference road contests (27-7) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, and overall has emerged the victor in 12 of its last 13, and 17 of its last 18, Mountain West games, regardless of location. SDSU is 50-1 in its last 51 games, and has won 38 straight games, in which it has shot at least 50.0 percent from the field which it last did against Nevada.

Nevada (16-6) lost at rival UNLV 68-62 on Saturday as the Wolf Pack were held scoreless over the final four minutes of play. Kenan Blackshear scored 14 points on the night, in addition to recording six assists, pulling down five rebounds, and tallying two steals. Blackshear surpassed the 100-assist mark for the season. Nevada is 12-0 this when hitting 44% or better from the field, but hit only 41.2% in the UNLV loss.

The Wolf Pack are unbeaten in Reno and already have dispatched the other three teams in the upper half of the standings at home in Boise State, Utah State and New Mexico. Darrion Williams is a leading candidate for MW Freshman of the Year. He was named the Mountain West Freshman of Week for the third time this season on Monday.

The Aztecs own a 25-6 series advantage overall vs. Nevada and are 7-5 in Reno. Pick: Nevada