#755 ASA PLAY ON Kansas -7 over Samford, Thursday at 9:55 PM ET - One of the most popular underdogs in the first round is this Samford team. Because of that we’re getting some really solid line value with the Jayhawks here. We understand Kansas will be without leading scorer McCullar, however he’s been out for half of their last 12 games so it’s not as if they now have to learn how to play without him. The Jayhawks beat 2 tourney teams down the stretch without him topping Baylor and Texas. We get a high level program in KU coming off a terrible outing in the Big 12 tourney as they lost by 20 points to Cincinnati. They played that game without McCullar and starting center Dickinson (18 PPG / 11 RPG) but he is back in the line up for this game. We’re sure the KU players are hearing all of the rumblings about a possible upset, etc… and coming off a bad loss we look for them to play with a chip on their shoulder in this one. If they do, we know Kansas is obviously more talented than Samford. The Bulldogs were an exciting, fast paced team that won the SoCon this season. They faced 2 top 100 teams the entire season and lost to Purdue by 30 and lost to VCU, who did not make the tourney, by 10. They are a small team (349th in height) facing a big KU team that should completely dominate them on the boards. Samford does shoot the 3 ball well, however their 3 point shot percentage drops off drastically when they are away from home (43% at home and 34% on the road). They’ll need to be red hot from deep to have a shot here. In order for a team with lesser talent to have a shot to beat a heavyweight, they need to limit possessions and shorten the game. Giving the superior talent more possessions just gives them a chance to pull away. Samford is a go, go, go team with the 14th highest adjusted tempo in CBB. We don’t think that serves them well here. Take Kansas on Thursday night.