Public consensus trends from various outlets (click to enlarge).

Kentucky appears to be one of the heaviest backed teams in any game from the tournament thus far. Good. Kenpom only has the line set at 2, so coupling the pomeroy ratings with the high perception and consensus variant, West Virginia looks very solid. The line movement has been sharp for the most part. Sharp college basketball books Pinnacle and JustBet are showing 3.5 vs the market 4, and SportsInteraction as usual has a heavy lean to the square side at 5. 5Dimes was advertising a high vig 2.5 earlier in the week for a brief second, I mean that literally, the line was there and gone at the blink of a squirrel’s eye, and I’m not nuts. Haven’t quite deciphered the reason to showing a high or plus juice line as the front-line factor for a sportsbook.

In terms of the game itself, any relatively veteran team that is content with testing the spring factor of the gym floor breeds a brand of basketball hypersensitive to freshmen basketball proclivity. West Virginia is currently ranked 311th (63.4) in tempo according to pomeroy. As well that dilatoriness does not draw favorable interest to casual fans, hence the huge public backing on the young Wildcats and not West Virginia.

The Kansas State game is a dart throw. Would lean Buter, but only because I hate betting with the public.