Final Four: Kansas vs Villanova 4/2/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Kansas Jayhawks and Villanova Wildcats clash Saturday night in NCAA Tournament Final Four college basketball action from the Caesars Superdome. Villanova is 30-7 overall this year. The Wildcats took out Houston in their last tourney matchup. As for Kansas, they’re 32-6 so far and coming off an Elite Eight win over Miami. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Villanova has only lost consecutive games once this year, and that was way back in mid-December. The Wildcats plowed through St. John’s, UConn and Creighton for the conference title. Since then they’ve taken out Delaware, Ohio State, Michigan and Houston in the national tourney. 

Matched up against Houston on Saturday, the Wildcats had a decent 27-20 lead by halftime. Villanova was outscored by one point in the second but still hung on for the 50-44 win. Tops in scoring was Jermaine Samuels, notching a double-double on 16 points and 10 boards. 

Over on the Kansas side, they’ve only lost consecutive games once this year as well; back in early March versus Baylor and TCU. The Jayhawks are currently riding a nice nine-game win streak, taking out TCU, Texas, West Virginia, TCU again, Texas Tech, Texas Southern, Creighton, Providence and Miami in that stretch. 

In the Sunday Elite Eight game versus Miami, Kansas was down 29-35 at the break and in major trouble. The Jayhawks rebounded after halftime to score 47 more points in a 76-50 victory. Ochai Agbaji led the team on his 18 points, five rebounds and four steals. 

PICK: I’m going to take a stab on Villanova. The Wildcats are certainly capable of putting up big offensive numbers; they had 73 or more points in nine of 10 games going into the conference tournament. Villanova has scored more than 66 points in just two of seven games since then, but they’ve held opponents to 65 or fewer points in all seven matchups. No matter what type of game this Final Four appearance turns into, Villanova should be ready to compete. 

As for Kansas, they’ll be quite the stout opponent in this one. The Jayhawks have had a couple of close calls during this win streak (specifically the Texas and Providence games) but otherwise they haven’t had a ton of issues. I like this one to be a fairly high total with Villanova powering out the cover. Should be a great matchup regardless.