USC vs. Kansas 2021 NCAA Tournament second-round odds, spread, pick: Jayhawks star freshman Jalen Wilson to return Monday from COVID protocols

Usually, the only time there's NCAA Tournament action on a Monday, it's the championship game. However, due to some rescheduling this year because of COVID, the second round of the Big Dance wraps up with eight games Monday, and one of the marquee matchups is No. 6 USC against No. 3 Kansas with a 9:40 p.m. ET tip on CBS From Hinkle Fieldhouse. It will feature two of the country's top freshmen in the Trojans' Evan Mobley and Jayhawks' Jalen Wilson, although Wilson will not be 100 percent. USC is a 1-point favorite on the William Hill Sportsbook college basketball odds.

Kansas beat No. 14 Eastern Washington 93-84 – just barely failing to cover a 10-point spread – on Saturday playing without Wilson, who was in COVID protocols. David McCormack, who had just returned from protocols himself, had 22 points and nine rebounds as KU rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit. Kansas has now won 14 consecutive first-round games in the NCAA Tournament.

Wilson is scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Monday morning and will play but at "far less than 100 percent," according to Coach Bill Self. Wilson will not have to pass a COVID-19 test upon arrival because he tested positive March 12 and has been isolated in Lawrence ever since. He will have cleared quarantine on Monday.

"I don't know how much he'll play," Self said. "You know, he's going to be rusty, he's going to be fatigued. He's going to be far less than 100 percent. But he can rebound the ball and do some things. So he may play three minutes, he may play 10 minutes, he may play 15, I don't know."

Self could be indulging in a bit of gamesmanship by saying that as he also said McCormack was likely only going to ply between 7-10 minutes, and he was on the court for 25 Saturday.

"You could tell with his conditioning and everything he really didn't have lingering side effects," Self said of McCormack. "We don't know what it will be like with Jalen."

Wilson, ranked as the No. 53 overall player in the Class of 2019 out of Texas by sister site 247Sports, is averaging 12.1 points and a team-leading 8.2 rebounds in 29 minutes per game. He redshirted in the 2019-20 season after playing two games and then getting injured.

While Wilson may not be a lottery pick if he declares for the 2021 NBA Draft, the Trojans' 7-footer Mobley could go No. 1 overall – perhaps no worse than No. 2 if Oklahoma State freshman Cade Cunningham goes first. 247Sports ranked Mobley as the No. 3 overall prospect in the Class of 2020 and he has more than lived up to the hype in averaging 16.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.2 assists.

He is the only Division I player to be averaging at least 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 2.0 assists this season. In USC's 72-56 win over No. 11 Drake in the first round, Mobley had 17 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and two assists.

Mobley was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first Pac-12 player to win all three in the same season and only the second in any Power 5 conference to accomplish the feat, joining Kentucky's Anthony Davis.

Kansas leads the all-time series with USC 11-5 and has won the past seven – the schools last played on Dec. 22, 2011, and KU prevailed 63-47. They were actually scheduled to play this season on Dec. 19 at Kansas but that was scuttled due to COVID scheduling changes. 

I like USC in on the CBB picks for this game simply because Wilson likely won't be close to 100 percent. 

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