Kansas and Baylor will square off Saturday in the first battle of top five foes in this decade, with both are coming in playing tremendous defense.
The teams enter into this game at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence., Kan., ranked in the top 10 in fewest points per possession allowed, and will pose a battle of strength on strength.
Thanks to the return of upperclassman Udoka Azubuike, who leads all qualified players in college basketball in field-goal shooting percentage at 80 percent, the Jayhawks rank second in the country in two-point shooting percentage. Baylor ranks 11th in defensive two-point shooting percentage.
Both teams also rank between 24th and 30th in rebound rate, but what can be big in games with tights spreads is free-throw shooting. Though Azubuike shoots 80 percent from the floor, he converts only 39 percent of his free throws, which means he is either a massive liability or is taken off the floor entirely in situations late in games where fouling could come into play.
With Baylor getting either a win or push in each of their past three visits to Lawrence, along with not allowing a team to score more than 63 points since the beginning of December, the Bears should be able to go into a hostile environment and hang with Kansas enough to get a cover.
The play: Baylor, +8.