The Sunflower State will have to watch the men’s Final Four without an in-state team involved for a second straight season, after Kansas flamed out in the second round against Gonzaga, and Kansas State and Wichita State missed the field entirely.
Now, Kansans are forced to grasp at straws to find a favorite to pull for this weekend, with zero in-state players on the rosters of Alabama, N.C. State, Purdue or UConn and very little in the way of local draws beyond that.
Still, it seems like the state that employed the sport’s inventor (Dr. James Naismith) still has a vested interest in Saturday’s national semifinal, with the Big Ten’s lone representative beating out the defending champs from Storrs statewide. The game also figures to impact Kansas sports betting even without a lot of local rooting interest.
We used Google Trends search interest scores to compare Kansans’ search volume for each of the four remaining teams in Men’s March Madness. These results were tracked on a scale of 1-100 and from the start of March Madness (March 18) through April 1.
Kansas Rooting Interest in Final Four
In the Women’s Final Four, Kansas sports betting apps list South Carolina as the championship favorite at -200, followed by Iowa at +300.
Which Team Is Kansas Pulling For?
Right now, it seems like Kansas natives have gotten behind Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers, with the Big Ten program eking out the top spot with a search interest score of 24, just ahead of the Huskies at 20.
Rounding out the list in the Sunflower State this year are N.C. State (16) and Alabama (10), which comes as none of the four coaches in this year’s Final Four have any connections to the hoops hotbed of Kansas.
Matt Painter of Purdue is probably the closest, as the Ft. Wayne native served as a head coach at Southern Illinois before going to West Lafayette. Kevin Keatts of N.C. State is from Virginia, and Nate Oats of Alabama hails from Wisconsin.
For those looking to bet on the action in the Desert, FanDuel Kansas lists UConn as a commanding favorite to win their second straight title, with the Huskies listed at -185, ahead of Purdue (+190), Alabama (+1300) and N.C. State (+2000).
USA Today photo by Alex Martin.
