Eastern Illinois Panthers at Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Predictions: Glorified Scrimmage

Our crew shares what Kansas will come home and work on before diving back into the meat of the schedule.

The Kansas Jayhawks are back home for a 4-game stretch after an up-and-down showing at the Maui Invitational that saw them take their first loss of the season. With the Jayhawks plagued by turnovers throughout the event, the friendly environment should help them as they have a tune-up tonight before a particularly tough game on Friday.

Eastern Illinois has already had a rough season, and they don't appear to be a team that will put up much of a fight. But we've seen Kansas struggle inexplicably in one game every season. Could this be that game? Or will the superior athleticism of the Jayhawks be unstoppable tonight?

Do you disagree with our assessment? Make sure you read them all and then hope over to the Discord or on Twitter to share your own thoughts.

Kyle Davis

Check out our Eastern Illinois Preview for Kyle's full breakdown and prediction.

Eastern Illinois vs Kansas Preview

Derek Noll

Back in the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse, I expect the Jayhawks to romp past Eastern Illinois whose best win is against Coppin State. The formula seems pretty simple in games like these, feed the big man, let McCullar operate, and take care of business. The keys in games like these is to get that rotation set and build the confidence of guys like Jackson, Furphy, Timberlake, and McDowell. I’ll take KU to hit the century mark and for at least two of the guys mentioned in the sentence above to get to double digits in the scoring column. 

Kansas 101, Eastern Illinois 60.

Brendan Dzwierzynski

Somewhere around 2005, I tagged along for a college visit with my sister to visit Eastern Illinois University. I’m sure the people of Charleston, Illinois, love their hometown and appreciate their local university, but consider my 10 or 11-year-old self to have been unimpressed. The same can be said about my feelings toward EIU's team this year, ranked 345th in the nation by KenPom and thus second worst in the Ohio Valley Conference. They're not very big, they play slowly and, frankly, KU should cruise tonight. Hunter Dickinson will feast, Kevin McCullar will get his and I’ll say that it’s K.J. Adams who steps up as the third-biggest scoring option tonight. This tilt should feel like a nice tune-up for this lingering matchup with UConn on Friday. 

Kansas 99, Eastern Illinois 65.

Andy Mitts

The Jayhawks are going to come out mad in this game, and I'm guessing a huge portion of that is going to be driven by the turnover performance we saw from Kansas in Maui. That is probably the main Achilles heel for this team, something that could haunt them even after the shooting at the two spot gets figured out.

This game should not be in doubt the entire way, which means that Bill Self can emphasize taking care of the ball in a way that he normally couldn't. Expect some strange lineups and lots of bench minutes as the Jayhawks build a huge lead and then Self tinkers to see what can work.

Kansas 95, Eastern Illinois 61.

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