The Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Seton Hall Pirates, 83-79, on Saturday, March 17 in their second game of the March Madness tournament. Kansas ended up failing to cover the 4.5-point spread while the game went stayed under the posted total of 155.
The story of this game is that Kansas picked up its star player. Devonte Graham scored only eight points. If you had been told that before this game started, you would have thought Seton Hall had won… but the Jayhawks offered a twist. Malik Newman scored 28 points, continuing his torrid pace from the Big 12 Tournament, when he was also Kansas’ best player in a late-season run. Newman was not this good during the regular season. He knows he had to step up and has responded in a big way for coach Bill Self. Svi Mykhailiuk contributed 16 points and Lagerald Vick 13 for Kansas in a balanced effort which also included 14 bench points compared to just seven for Seton Hall.
The point spread was in question for most of the game as it was a very tightly-played second half. The Jayhawks had been in position to cover for most of the final few minutes until Seton Hall hit a number of three-pointers. That includes the a buzzer-beating three-pointer, which changed the cover from Kansas to Seton Hall. The point spread had been at 4.5 and the Jayhawks had been winning by seven points until the final basket was made. As a result, the Pirates came up with a miracle cover.
The Jayhawks will now move on to face the winner of the Clemson-Auburn matchup and, of course, this will be the end of the road for Seton Hall. The Jayhawks’ odds to win March Madness at BetDSI Sportsbook were at +1700 at the beginning of the Tournament. Now they’ll move on to the second weekend and should move up to the range of about +1400 to +1500. As for Seton Hall, their betting odds to win the NCAA Tournament were long to begin with. They were sitting at +20000 as they weren’t expected to go far. They edged by in the first round before falling short against Kansas.
