With just four losses through their first 51 games combined, the Baylor Bears, Missouri Tigers, and Kansas Jayhawks were projected to battle it out in a Big 12 fight that very well could have gone down to the wire this sports betting season. However, despite having the best non-conference record once the Big 12 play got underway, the Bears proved that they couldn’t keep up with the two best teams in the conference, losing all four of their games to Missouri and Kansas. That left the Tigers and Jayhawks alone at the top of the conference standings heading in to the final stretch before the March Madness betting begins, and with just one game between them, this Saturday’s showdown at the Phog Allen Fieldhouse should be the most highly anticipated game of the week.

Missouri heads in to this weekend one game back of Kansas for top spot, but they have nobody else to blame but themselves for not being tied after dropping a crucial home against the Kansas State Wildcats on Tuesday. That loss ended a string of seven straight wins for the Tigers, and in the end it proves that the Wildcats were Missouri’s biggest nemesis as two of their three losses this year came Rodney McGruder and company. The Tigers still have the chance to rebound and finish the year as the top seed in the Big 12 with their final two games against unranked teams in Iowa State and Texas Tech, but the first and most difficult step will be to beat Kansas on the road this Saturday in their final game before the NHL trade deadline day happens on Monday.

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While on the surface it might seem like the Big 12 is made up of a handful of top contenders that have a legitimate chance to win the conference, the fact of the matter is that there is only one team that has a legitimate chance. Even though there are four teams currently ranking the top-25, only time stands in the way of the No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks and another Big 12 title. The cracks have already begun to show near the top of the conference, and while the rest of the field begins to falter, the Jayhawks will only get better from here as the college basketball betting favorites.

The team that appears to have the best chance at challenging Kansas for Big 12 supremacy just lost another game on Wednesday night, as the No. 2 Missouri Tigers dropped their second conference game at the Oklahoma State Cowboys 79-72. While the Cowboys have played particularly well as underdogs according to the pay head bookies against top-five ranked opponents, the Tigers have now dropped two of their last four on the road, and seem to become a little rattled in opposition buildings when things don’t go their way early on. Marcus Denmon remains one of the best players in college basketball, but he can’t do it alone and the Tigers will struggle when they are pushed by Kansas in early February.

If Missouri isn’t the team that knocks off Kansas, then it is difficult to imagine either the No. 7 Baylor Bears or No. 24 Kansas State Wildcats having a chance. The Bears have already dropped consecutive decisions to Kansas and Missouri this year, including an 18-point blowout loss to the Jayhawks at the Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The Bears built their record up by winning close games against Mississippi State and Kansas State, but the Bulldogs had gone through a stretch where they lost two of three with the other defeat against unranked Arkansas, and nobody thinks that the Wildcats are going to climb any higher than third. The emotion of the in-state rivalry between the Jayhawks and Wildcats could contribute to the spectacle of their contest, but it won’t make the difference.

The Jayhawks have the potential to be a sports betting powerhouse the rest of the way in the Big 12, as they have already beaten the Wildcats and Bears by double-digits, with two games remaining against Missouri to really prove their merit. Junior Thomas Washington has been a force with senior Tyshawn Taylor really helping him along to complete the best inside-outside tandem in the conference. Kansas will have the chance to work on some things over the next week with games against Iowa State and Oklahoma before their toughest test of the year at Missouri on February 4^th, and regardless of whether or not they are listed as the Betonline favorite, look for them to win big as they continue to prove they are the best that the Big 12 has to offer.

While they aren’t the only undefeated team remaining in the country, 14 straight wins including a nine-point victory over the Texas A&M Aggies in their Big 12 opener has the Baylor Bears stealing the spotlight as we welcome the new sports betting year. Coming off of a big win over Mississippi State in Dallas, the Bears had little trouble with an Aggies’ team that had won nine of their 13 games this season, with Perry Jones III once again stepping up to contribute 14 points and 12 rebounds in their first game since climbing two spots to no. 4 in the national rankings. Looking ahead to the next couple of weeks on the Baylor schedule, and it won’t get any easier for Jones and company with four of their next five against nationally ranked opponents, including No. 7 Missouri and No. 14 Kansas. That stretch will be a real test of just where this team belongs early on, and if the Bears’ early season play is any indication, the answer to that is right near the top.

A lot of the attention has been on Baylor and their improbable rise the past couple of weeks, college basketball betting fans that have stayed with the Syracuse Orange in spite of everything that they have gone through have been rewarded with some incredible results. The Orange are still at the top of the national rankings with a perfect record, even though just one of their 15 wins has come against a ranked opponent. Syracuse improved to 2-0 in the Big East with victories against Seton Hall and DePaul, and while they face Marquette coming up this weekend, they still have some time before they take on the true heavyweights in the conference, including one-loss Connecticut and Georgetown. Both of those teams are in the top-10, and should provide a better test of where head coach Jim Boeheim’s team is.

The pay head bookies will take note that the Orange weren’t the only team that received a first place vote this past week, as the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats received one, and moved up to the second spot in the national rankings following a seven-point win over the fourth-ranked Louisville Cardinals. Should Syracuse follow with their tough schedule ahead, the Wildcats should be right there to pounce on the top spot given that they don’t play another game against a ranked opponent until February. The Cardinals slipped down to No. 11 with the loss, allowing the North Carolina Tar Heels to climb all the way up to three, with the Duke Blue Devils rounding out the top-five at No. 5.

There is still a long way to go before anything is determined for this year’s conferences, but for the most part the strong play from teams such as Syracuse and Baylor are strong indications for future success. Playing either team on betonline right now should be a good play, but don’t get too carried away once they get to the toughest parts of their schedules.

All of the NCAA basketball betting talk this past preseason was centered around the North Carolina Tar Heels and the amounts of money that they would make those willing to risk it on them this season. It didn’t take long for the No. 1 ranked preseason team to falter, and following a loss to the UNLV Rebels, the hammer came down hard from the social networks and those that felt the Tar Heels didn’t play with enough urgency during their trip to Las Vegas. At the end of the day however, that loss to the Rebels may have been exactly what head coach Roy Williams needed to get the attention of his players in the early going, and the team responded well with a 60-57 win over the No. 7 and previously undefeated Wisconsin Badgers on Wednesday night.

The Tar Heels did a lot of things right in that win over Wisconsin, although it did take even more steam from Williams, who at one point even ripped off his jacket and threw it to the floor as he screamed at his players. UNC responded, with Harrison Barners coming alive to score 10 of his 20 points during a second-half surge that helped the Tar Heels regain some of the momentum and swagger that they had been missing since early on against UNLV. Tyler Zeller helped out Barnes and his teammates by adding 12 points, while John Henson finished with 17 rebounds and five blocks. The win for those that took the game with the per head bookies was a relief after watching them battle resiliency through the first two quarters, but after finally prevailing they have to be feeling good about their game as they get set to clash with the new No. 1 team in the country, when they travel to Rupp Arena to take on the Kentucky Wildcats.

While the Tar Heels undoubtedly felt the burden of being the No. 1 team heading in to this season, Wildcats’ head coach John Calipari won’t have his team become overwhelmed by that number, as they prepare for every game as though it is the SEC championship. Kentucky has done an excellent job of working as a team and staying humble, and with Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones getting the job done at both ends of the floor it isn’t difficult to understand why Calipari once again has the Wildcats at the top of the table for those who have bet on them with the pay per head bookies.

If UNC is going to have any chance at countering Kentucky’s will to play as a single unit and get the job done, they are going to have to play a similar style, and rely on all aspects of their game with Barnes, Zeller, and Henson all working together. The talent is there for the Tar Heels to make the early-season trip a successful one, but once again it will come down to execution as the difference maker in the final outcome for those that wager with betonline.

When asked about the significance of win No. 903 and moving past his former coach and mentor Bobby Knight in to first place on the all-time wins list, Duke Blue Devils’ head coach Mike Krzyzewski talked down the actual number in terms of importance and alluded to the journey as being what brings him satisfaction. But while coach K made for some interesting language in that response, the truth is that the journey may never have been what it was if it wasn’t for the fact that he had been so successful. In any sport, the bottom line for a head coach is to produce wins, and everything else that comes with it beyond the ultimate results are just secondary objectives. At Duke, they want to win always. As long as coach K is overseeing the Blue Devils, there is no reason to think that they won’t even though many are projecting they won’t be the same sportsbook reviews force they were a year ago as ACC champions.

When you get to the level that Krzyzewski has hit, it is no longer about the negatives, the problems encountered along the way, the bad decisions that were few and far between. In 35 years as a head coach, Krzyzewski has had just four losing seasons. If you asked him he would tell you that he is more about avoiding losses than he is about just winning, and we can understand his terminology when we look back on those four losing seasons in comparison to 11 final fours and an incredible four Final Four appearances. The fact that a head coach has been to a March Madness Final Four as many times as he has had a losing season is almost surreal, and yet another pay head reason why there is promise for this coming year.

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