In what will probably be the most competitive Thursday Sweet 16 matchup, 2-seed Kansas State takes on 6-seed Xavier in the West Regional. This is a case of a rare regular season rematch in the NCAA Tournament with Kansas State winning and covering in Manhattan, 71-56 as 6.5-point chalk on December 8th.

The Wildcats, favored by 4.5 points this go-around, have looked impressive through the first two rounds of the tournament in winning both games by double digits. Xavier is off an upset of 3-seed Pittsburgh in the second round, just their second outright dog win of the season.

With the exception of a slow start against BYU, Kansas State has rolled through their first two opponents to reach the Sweet 16. They trailed 15-seed North Texas for less than a minute, early in the contest, on Thursday before cruising to an 82-62 victory as 15.5-point chalk, making them one of the few first-day favorites to cover the spread. In Round 2, they fell behind BYU 10-0 to start the game, but led by halftime and never looked back.

This is the Wildcats first Sweet 16 appearance since 1988 back in the days of Mitch Richmond. The team is led by its excellent backcourt of Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente. Pullen had a career-high 34 against BYU, his 3rd 30+ effort of the season, leading Kansas State to its 11th win in their last 14 games.

Keep in mind that three of the Wildcats seven losses this season came against Kansas. The other four losses all came by eight points or less, so they have yet to truly play a bad game.

Xavier is actually the more tournament polished of the two teams and you probably didn’t know that the Musketeers are making their third consecutive Sweet 16 appearance. They finished as co-champions in the Atlantic 10 during the regular season and have lost just once since suffering their worst loss of the season, 90-65 at Dayton back on February 6th. That’s an eleven-game stretch that has seen the team cover the spread eight times.

The Musketeers are led by Jordan Crawford, who infamously dunked on LeBron James in a summer camp game that Nike did not want you to see. Michigan State is the only other team besides Xavier to have qualified for the Sweet 16 each of the last three seasons.

Both squads have been very effective against the pointspread all season long. Kansas State went 21-9 at the betting window, including 18-6 when laying points. In four of those contests, they were favored by at least 9.5 points, one of which they did lose outright. They were 9-2 ATS against non-conference opposition as well.

Xavier turned a profit for its backers as well, going 22-11 ATS. However, as mentioned earlier, they were suspect as dogs, going only 3-4 ATS. Let’s note that the Musketeers are 8-1 ATS their last nine NCAA Tournament games, including 2-0 the last two years in the Sweet 16.

Totals players will be happy to hear that the X-Men are an incredible 16-1 Under with a total of 150 to 159.5. This includes a run of nine consecutive winning Under tickets.