A trip to the national championship game is on the line when Kansas squares off against Villanova at 8:49 p.m. ET Saturday in the 2018 NCAA Tournament Final Four. The Wildcats are favored by five points, unchanged from the opening line. The over-under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 154.5, down a half-point from the opener.

Before you make any pick on this battle of No. 1 seeds, you need to see what veteran handicapper Josh Nagel has to say.

Nagel is a Nevada-based expert with almost two decades of experience in the handicapping industry. He has won multiple handicapping contests and specializes in picking college sports.

And he's nailed nine of his past 11 picks when either of these teams is involved. He also enters the 2018 Final Four as SportsLine's top overall college hoops expert. Anybody following his picks is up big right now.

Now, he has analyzed this Final Four showdown from every possible angle and locked in his pick. You can only see it at SportsLine.

Nagel has taken into account Villanova's top-tier offense that features two of the top guards in country.

Jalen Brunson, the AP Player of the Year, averages 19.2 points per game, but he's also been spreading it around this postseason with at least four assists in every NCAA Tournament game. Mikal Bridges (17.8 ppg) is good enough to make any defense that focuses too much on Brunson pay.

The Wildcats, however, have advanced to the Final Four because of their defense as much as their offense. After giving up an average of over 70 points during the regular season, they've conceded just 64 per contest in the NCAA Tournament. They just held Texas Tech to 59 in the Elite Eight.

But just because Villanova is playing well on both ends doesn't guarantee it will cover a five-point spread.

The Jayhawks, who have scored at least 80 points in six of their past seven games, are 4-1 as underdogs this season. Plus, Kansas ranks in the top five nationally in offensive efficiency and shoots above 40 percent from deep.

If they play at that level against the Wildcats, the Jayhawks could keep this one within the spread and advance to the NCAA Tournament championship game for the first time since 2012.

Kansas has covered five of its last seven non-conference games and the underdog is 4-1 against the spread in the last five meetings between these two schools.

So which side should you back? Visit SportsLine now to find out which side of the Villanova vs. Kansas spread you need to be all over, all from the handicapper on a blistering 9-2 run on his picks involving the Wildcats or Jayhawks.