Kansas
College basketball predictions: Ride with favorites Kansas, Houston
This is the best Saturday of college basketball this season by a country mile. Three top-10 matchups litter the card and a handful of mid-major battles stand out, as well.
Here are two that have my attention:
No. 4 Houston at No. 8 Kansas
If Kansas being installed as a home underdog made you do a double-take, you’re not alone.
Over the last 34 years, Kansas has closed as an underdog on its home court just twice — in February 1989 as a short ’dog to top-ranked Oklahoma, and in February 2021 as a 4.5-point underdog to second-ranked Baylor.
They split those two games, losing in overtime to OU’s dynamic duo of Mookie Blaylock and Stacey King while upsetting Baylor by 13 at Phog Allen.
So why are the Jayhawks an underdog in this spot? Injuries and defense.
The Jayhawks have become a three-man team in the past month, relying heavily on Hunter Dickinson, Kevin McCullar Jr. and freshman Johnny Furphy. But now McCullar has a bone bruise on his knee.
The Jayhawks’ wing is averaging nearly 20/6/5 this season on 47 percent shooting from the field. Indications from coach Bill Self are that McCullar will play Saturday, but he won’t be 100 percent returning from that painful injury.
Kansas has fallen off defensively since the start of the new year. According to Bart Torvik’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, KU is ranked 65th nationally since Jan. 1. In the first two months of the season, KU resided in the top 20. That’s good news for a Houston offense that is susceptible to scoring lulls.
When Kansas is trying to crack Houston’s defense, all I can say is “good luck.” The Cougars have the highest-rated defense in the country by a big margin. They lead the nation in effective field goal percentage defense, turn opponents over on 22 percent of their possessions (third) and rank third in three-point shooting defense (28.3 percent).
If you want to find a decent comp, you need to look at 2019 Texas Tech, which nearly won the national championship, or the 38-1 Kentucky Wildcats from 2015. That’s the rarefied air of this Houston defense.
Evan Miya’s rating of the top 25 most impactful defenders in the nation features four Cougars, including the top two in the nation (Jamal Shead, Ja’Vier Francis).
And finally, if you’re going to hand KU a loss on its home floor, you’re going to need to quiet the crowd, and Houston has a special weapon in that department.
The Cougars lead the nation in kill shots, which are runs of 10-0 or better. So far they’ve produced 27 of them this season while only conceding four. That’s the best margin of any team in the country and helps Kelvin Sampson’s teams destroy opponents’ will to win.
Recommendation: Houston -2.
Binghamton at Vermont
The Catamounts have long been the class of the America East, and as the conference bully, they’ve constantly picked on Binghamton. In their last 10 wins over this rival, Vermont has won by an average of 24 points per game.
Betting on College Basketball?
This season, after a sleepy start, the Cats have come alive with six straight wins, including three in a row on the road. Coach John Becker has credited his team’s depth for its turnaround.
This season, the conference pivoted to a Thursday/Saturday conference schedule, so depth has mattered more than usual. Nine Catamounts play 14-plus minutes per game for Becker and eight players have led UVM in scoring in the past nine games.
I would play this up to UVM -16.5.
Recommendation: Vermont -14.
KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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If the motto to live by is to get 1 hour of movement a day, the Parkinson’s community in Kansas City is exceeding it.
Bob Zipse has been fighting Parkinson’s for 10 years. He said the diagnosis hit him hard.
Leawood’s Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center expands services as diagnoses climb
“I was super depressed. I mean, I was in a chair. Did you want to move? Look around, just horrible. Because there’s no resources. Where do I go with the time?”
Zipse said the disease can be an isolating experience.
KSHB
“Parkinson’s, I say, is a very lonely, lonely disease. Either people don’t want to deal with you, or you’re embarrassing.”
He found the Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center at his lowest point. Now, he sees people around him pushing past their limits.
“You see people out here, they’re in the mid-70s, they’re doing push-ups, sit-ups, lifting weights. I mean, it’s amazing, really,” Zipse said. “In here, we’re all the same.”
Sarissa Curry founded the center after seeing the power of healing through exercise and recognizing that diagnosis rates were increasing. An aging population and younger diagnoses are among the biggest factors driving that trend.
Kansas consistently ranks as having one of the highest Parkinson’s disease diagnoses and mortality rates in the United States, second only to Nebraska. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, an estimated 20,000 people in the Kansas City metro alone are living with the disease.
“You see your neurologist once every six months to a year, and you see a physical therapist maybe a couple of months out of the year. Community-based programs are here every day to support this community,” Curry said.
Curry said the warning signs of rising Parkinson’s rates have been visible for years.
“They have been predicting this increase in Parkinson’s for many years. They were able to see the writing on the wall, they were able to see how the population was aging, and they knew that this was coming. We paid attention.”
She expanded the center to serve as an all-encompassing resource for people like Zipse.
KSHB
“I’d hate to wager what I would have been like. Life would have stopped for me, I think. This at least gives me hope, gives me some work towards and see some benefit of it,” Zipse said.
The PEWC will host a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, June 3, at 3:30 p.m. The community is invited to attend to learn more about the center’s services and the disease as incidence rates continue to rise each year.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Two men were arrested following a lengthy Reno County Sheriff’s Office investigation into several burglaries and thefts in the area.
Garson Stanley Boyles was arrested May 21, and Jimmy Ray Miller was arrested May 27. Both were arrested on suspicion of 11 counts of burglary, five counts of criminal damage to property and four counts of theft.
The sheriff’s office said numerous stolen items have been recovered, including a vehicle. Investigators said several items remain missing.
Anyone with information about the location of stolen property is asked to contact the Reno County Sheriff’s Office at 620-694-2735. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call Reno County Crime Stoppers at 620-694-2666 or 800-222-TIPS.
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