Barstool College Basketball: Scheduling Gods Gives Us OU/Kansas, Top-25 Rankings, POY Rankings

The scheduling gods of the college basketball world are currently looking down smiling at us. Everyone today is miserable for their first day back at work. There’s no Monday Night Football. Unless you live in Boston or you’re Nate, your NFL season is over.

But, there is a college basketball game tonight that is must watch. It’s the (likely) 40^th time a No. 1 will square off against a No. 2. At 9 p.m. tonight the undefeated Oklahoma Sooners travel to Allen Fieldhouse to play Kansas.

This is must watch TV. Just tuning in to college hoops for the first time this season? That’s fine. Here’s what you need to know about the game tonight.

Oklahoma has the current National Player of the Year in Buddy Hield. He’s averaging almost 25 points a game while pulling down over five rebounds and is an absolute lockdown wing defender. The Sooners are also ridiculous on the defensive side of the ball. Lon Kruger likes to use a first-pass trap defense with the correct rotations.

If you watched the OU-Nova game you saw this in play. On the first pass to the wing, usually the defender of the guy passing the ball would go double. The opposite wing would rotate up taking away the first pass, then a deny to the post. This causes opposing teams to try and throw cross-court passes, allowing for either a steal or an easy rotation out on the shooter while everyone else picks up. This is good for eighth best in the country according to KenPom, with Oklahoma giving up just 91.2 points per 100 possessions.

Offensively Kansas will look to shoot you to death from the 3-point line. Between Hield, Jordan Woodward and Isaiah Cousins, the three starting guards are shooting 49.5 percent from deep. Then throw in Ryan Spangler, a big man who is constantly grabbing a double-double that can stretch the floor and is shooting 45 percent. If the 3 isn’t there right away, Oklahoma looks to beat you off the bounce, trying to drive to the hoop. Don’t get up to take a piss during an offensive possession though as their average possession is the 34^th quickest in the country at 15.6 seconds.

Then there’s Kansas. Everyone knows Kansas and Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Much like Oklahoma, the Jayhawks are shooting the shit out of the ball from deep, hitting 45 percent as a team. They are coming off a game where they just murdered a ranked Baylor team to the tune of 102-74.

The biggest difference between the teams though? Depth. Kansas has 11 players that are averaging at least 10 minutes of action each game. Oklahoma just has six. So, if this is a tightly called game, Kansas should be in control. Oh, not to mention Bill Self is 109-9 at Phog Allen since he took over the Kansas program.

I like Kansas to win this game, however the line is already up to Kansas -6. I see it being within the number if you’re into that sort of thing. Regardless I’ll be watching and live tweeting this game so follow me @barstoolreags

Barstool Reags Top 25

1. Oklahoma
2. Kansas
3. Maryland
4. North Carolina
5. Arizona
6. Michigan State
7. Virginia
8. Villanova
9. Providence
10. Xavier
11. Kentucky
12. SMU
13. Miami
14. Iowa State
15. Iowa
16. Texas A&M
17. Duke
18. Butler
19. West Virginia
20. South Carolina
21. Purdue
22. Cal
23. Louisville
24. George Washington
25. Dayton

Barstool Reags Player of the Year Race

1. Buddy Hield (Oklahoma)
2. Kris Dunn (Providence)
3. Denzel Valentine (Michigan State)
4. Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia)
5. Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa)