NCAA Tournament 2016 odds: Maryland basketball opens as 7-point underdog vs. Kansas in Sweet 16

The Maryland men's basketball team has opened as a 7-point underdog for Thursday's Sweet 16 game against top overall NCAA Tournament seed Kansas, according to new odds.

It's not surprising that Maryland isn't the betting favorite here. The Jayhawks are the tournament's consensus best team, and they'll be playing close to home in Louisville, Ky. They have won 16 games in a row, their last loss coming at Iowa State on Jan. 25. They've had no great trouble at all in the first two rounds of this tournament, blowing out No. 16 seed Austin Peay and then pulling away from No. 9 Connecticut in the second half of a game on Saturday.

The game will be a reunion for Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon, who played point guard for the Jayhawks in the 1980s and then embarked on a five-year run as an assistant coach under both Larry Brown and Roy Williams. Now Bill Self is at the Jayhawks' helm, and he and Turgeon are standing in each other's way.

Ken Pomeroy gives Maryland a 27 percent chance to win and projects Kansas to prevail by a 76-70 score.