Cincinnati is coming into this game with an 18-13 record this season and they are 7-11 in the conference this year as they have struggled in their 1st season of being in the Big 12. They have been playing much better recently as they have won 3 of their last 4 games, but they have also played against very weak opponents in that span as all 4 of those games were against teams with losing records in the conference as well as 2 of those wins coming against West Virginia who has been the worst team in the Big 12 this year. They are coming off of a win against West Virginia in their last game which was also the 1st round of this tournament, but they were awful in that game as they were trailing by 10+ points for most of the game and had to pull off a very late comeback to barely win by 5 points. They are going up against a Kansas team that is 22-9 this season and is 10-8 in the conference this year. Kansas has not been playing well in their recent games as they have been missing 2 key pieces in their lineup and have now lost 3 of their last 4 games, but even their 3 losses in that span were all against quality opponents as all 3 losses came against ranked teams in Houston, Baylor, and BYU. Cincinnati is not a ranked team though and they have not been playing as well as Kansas has been for most of the season. Kansas may be missing 2 key pieces here but they still have a lot of talent on their team as a team ranked in the top 25 and their depth is going to get up for this game knowing the disrespect they are receiving now. Kansas still has their own point to prove in this tournament after a regular season in which they underperformed and even without their 2 key pieces, they still have a much better team than Cincinnati who is now playing on a B2B and barely beat the worst team in the Big 12 in that game. Kansas is going to cover the spread in this game.