West Virginia vs. Kansas Big 12 Tournament odds: Spread drops slightly with Jayhawks coach Bill Self out due to illness, Norm Roberts taking over

Oddsmakers generally agree that the betting value of a head coach in either the NBA or college basketball, from a spread perspective, is fairly negligible. That will be put to the test Thursday afternoon in the Big 12 Tournament as regular-season champion Kansas faces West Virginia without Hall of Fame coach Bill Self on the sideline. The Jayhawks were -4.5 at Caesars but are down to -4 following the Self news, with some money perhaps coming in on the Mountaineers.

The official Kansas release said that Self was hospitalized with an illness and that assistant Norm Roberts will coach today. Roberts is a former St. John's head coach and coached the Jayhawks for the first four games this season with Self suspended for NCAA violations. Kansas won all four to improve Roberts' all-time head coaching record to 85-101. There's no word on if Self would be able to coach Friday if Kansas advances.

Kansas is the defending Big 12 Tournament champion and is +230 to repeat. It is 34-7 as the No. 1 seed and has won nine of its 12 Big 12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed. Since the Big 12's inception in 1996-97, the Jayhawks are 22-3 in the quarterfinals.

Prior to this news, Kansas had taken the fourth-most action of any team on the board Thursday in college basketball with 78% of all tickets on the Jayhawks against West Virginia. The Mountaineers advanced with a dominant 78-62 win over Texas Tech on Wednesday to likely clinch an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

CBS Sports' Jerry Palm lists WVU as a No. 10 seed in the South Region, opening against No. 7 Kentucky. He has defending national champion Kansas as a No. 1 seed in the East. West Virginia is +1200 to win the Big 12 Tournament.

West Virginia's Bob Huggins is now the winningest active coach in men's college basketball with Syracuse's Jim Boeheim retiring following his team's loss in the ACC Tournament on Wednesday. Boeheim won 1,015 games during his Hall of Fame career. That's second only to Duke's Mike Krzyzewski's 1,202. Krzyzewski retired after last season. Huggins has 935 following Wednesday's win.

West Virginia was 0-2 vs. Kansas this season, but the most recent meeting on Feb. 25 in Lawrence was just a two-point Kansas victory. The winner of this contest will face the victor between No. 4 Baylor and No. 5 Iowa State in the semifinals on Friday.

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