Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. Kansas Jayhawks Betting Picks (11/26)

The College Basketball season has tipped off and the first marquee matchup of the season will take place on Thanksgiving Day. The Gonzaga Bulldogs and Kansas Jayhawks will face off in the Credit Union Arena at 1:30 PM ET.

You can tune in on FOX as these two elites clash in what will be a phenomenal start to the season for whichever one walks away with a victory. The Bulldogs come in as 4.5-point favorites and we’re looking at a 146.5 over/under. Let’s dive into how this game will go down and who will end up covering the spread.

• Jayhawks are 6-0 ATS in their last 6 Thursday games.
• Bulldogs are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 neutral site games.
• Over is 6-0 in Bulldogs last 6 neutral site games.
• Over is 36-15 in Bulldogs last 51 overall.

The Bulldogs lose big men Killian Tillie and Filip Petrusev. They were one of the best frontcourt duos in the country and they won’t be easy to replace. Admon Gilder and Ryan Woolridge also graduated, and the pair of guards each averaged ten-plus points a game and made very few mistakes. Forward Corey Kispert is the ‘Zags best returning player, and he’ll push 15 PPG in 2020. Joel Ayayi and Drew Timme also return and will have far bigger roles this season.

Incoming freshman guard Jalen Suggs is a top-10 recruit and he will have a chance to make an immediate impact. If Suggs can live up to the hype, this Gonzaga team will not miss a beat. The guys they lost were inconsistent and often injured, so this team might have some more consistency if the chemistry remains.

The Jayhawks lose even more than Gonzaga and it starts with Devon Dotson. The PG averaged 18.3 PPG in 2019 and did so alongside Udoka Azubuike, who put up a double/double in what seemed like every important game Kansas played in. Returning defensive POTY Marcus Garrett returns and will move over to PG. We will see how that works out. Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji must step up and both have plenty of upside to do so.

Bryce Thompson comes in as the biggest recruit for Kansas. He’s a five-star 6’5 guard that will immediately play big minutes. The Jayhawks will need Thompson to have a big season if they want to contend for a top-two seed. Latrell Josell is an incoming PG and he should be able to help Garrett when he’d rather play SG. The Jayhawks have a tough first matchup, and they will need their experienced players to come out and play some strong defense as Gonzaga is very tough to slow down.

I project the Bulldogs to be the better team here in just about every spect. Marcus Garrett won’t make anything easy on the perimeter, but you can can’t beat Gonzaga with one guy. They move the ball as well as anyone in the country and have a phenomenal team this year. I like the Bulldogs to pull away in a close game and win by six to nine points.

The over is the only bet I would be comfortable here. The Bulldogs play fast and the Jayhawks won’t be the same defensive unit they were down low with Azubuike gone. This one should be up and down for the majority of the ballgame and the Bulldogs always fire plenty of threes. Give me the over here.