The Kansas Jayhawks have been a model of consistency through the years, capturing at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title fourteen straight seasons. And they are most definitely a resilient bunch, as they fought a very talented Duke team tooth-and-nail nail into overtime, and beating them by four points to advance to San Antonio. They are something special; don't make any mistake about that. But are they more special than the Villanova Wildcats? That would take some contemplation, in advance of their game that will take place on Saturday at 8:49 PM ET at the Alamodome. In the NCAA Championship odds at BetAnySports, Kansas is a five-point underdog in this one (155 points on the total).

What does Kansas have to do to overcome their underdog status?

CONTINUE DEFENDING THAT ARC – Kansas has held its last two opponents to just 13 out of 49 from three-point range, and on the season they surrendered only 32.7% overall from beyond the arc. Villanova is just too good from the perimeter for Kansas not to pay special attention to this.

GET SOMETHING OUT OF SILVIO DE SOUSA – The freshman out of Angola has been making steady contributions, and Kansas needs some quality minutes out of him. He's got a big enough frame (6-9, 245 pounds) to throw some muscle around, and he's got to be able to fill in the gaps that might be left by Udoka Azubuike, who is prone to fouling. How Bill Self uses his frosh, who hits almost 70% of his shots, is going to be a key to this game.

GO TO SOME ZONE -- This could be one of the ways they protect Azubuike, by cutting down penetration and therefore reduce the number of times he would directly have to defend anybody. But using this runs the risk of playing into what Villanova likes to do best, especially if you believe that good outside shooting is the way to beat a zone defense.

FEED THE HOT HAND – And of course, BetAnySports patrons know by that we mean Malik Newman, who has been absolutely "en fuego" lately. In his last seven games, Newman has scored 22.7 points per contest, and he is 55% (28-51) from three-point range. The thing about this explosion by Newman, who was a prized recruit at Mississippi State two years ago before transferring, is that no team can overplay on Devonte' Graham, who has been Kansas' leading scorer over the course of the season (17.2 ppg).

DO A BETTER JOB ON THE DEFENSIVE BOARDS – If you look at the analytics, Kansas has done a very poor job in defensive rebounding over the course of the season. They have allowed the opposition to rebound their own missed shots 31.3% of the time, which is well above the D-1 average and ranks only 290th in the nation as far as the metric of Defensive Rebounding Percentage. What was encouraging was that they held a 47-32 rebounding advantage over Duke, and against a team that was tops in the nation in Offensive Rebounding Percentage, they allowed only ten offensive caroms on 40 missed shots. That comes out to a percentage of only 25% and if that was projected over a full season, ironically, Duke would have been 290th in THAT category.

USE SVI MYKHAILIUK'S SHOOTING RANGE -- He is basically a 6-8 shooting guard who has the ability to make a high percentage of threes (44.7% this year), and Villanova may not have somebody to get out there and contest some of those long-range bombs. This is a player who could really punch his ticket as an NBA prospect with a big performance, and while we know the backcourt can shoot, if this guy heats up, it then puts extra pressure on Villanova's defense, which had it much easier against Texas Tech.

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