The Michigan Wolverines and Arizona Wildcats continue to dominate the college basketball future odds board. Next, the Iowa State Cyclones and the Connecticut Huskies are right behind. Also in the hunt for a potential national championship are the Purdue Boilermakers, Duke Blue Devils, Houston Cougars, and Gonzaga Bulldogs.
While there are a few surprises atop the college hoops future market board, there are some potentially strong betting values for those willing to look down the board. The Vanderbilt Commodores, BYU Cougars, Florida Gators, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Louisville Cardinals, and Texas Tech Red Raiders are teams to keep an eye on.
One of the reasons that Wise Guys love College Basketball Betting is the massive amount of teams, 361 for those keeping score at home. Sharps know that they can get more favorable odds to exploit on the college hoops board than in any other sport. As good as the oddsmakers are at what they do, they can’t possibly always get the price right on a sport that features so many teams and games. And that has certainly been the case this season.
Michigan Wolverines
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has had a controversial tenure, marked by plenty of scandals and humiliations, but also successes. Accordingly, Manuel’s biggest success is his men’s basketball hire of Dusty May, which followed one of his worst hires in the man that May replaced, Juwan Howard.
So far, Michigan is 13-0 straight up, 10-3 against the spread, and 6-7 under the offshore betting total. What is most amazing about the Wolverines is that they are providing a great profit margin despite being one of the most popular teams on the board. Of great concern is whether that profitability can hold up over the next two months of the brutal Big Ten schedule. Previously, Dusty May made his fame by taking the Florida Atlantic Owls to the Final Four. He was the perfect replacement after the amateur hour antics of Juwan Howard, who had several physical confrontations and anger management issues.
Howard should have been fired after slugging a Wisconsin assistant coach after a game. Instead was kept on by Michigan, which has long had its nose in the air, believing it is above and better than everyone else. However, May brings Michigan an adult in the room and a proven winner as a coach. May has built a deep, balanced College Basketball Odds team that plays a full-court game. Michigan has six players averaging 9.6 or more points per game.
Michigan plays at Penn State on Tuesday night and hosts Wisconsin in a CBS Saturday game (Time TBD).
Arizona Wildcats
Once upon a time, the Big 12 Conference was owned by the Baylor Bears and Kansas Jayhawks. But with the consolidation of conferences, NIL, and the transfer portal, the Big 12 has seen a power shift led by the Arizona Wildcats. Correlate that Arizona arrived in the Big 12 as a respected basketball school but one still recovering from NCAA sanctions, back when the NCAA still had some rules and control over schools.
Now in his fifth season as head coach, Tommy Lloyd has proven to be the perfect man to restore the Wildcats to glory. Lloyd learned under the great Mark Few as a top assistant with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. In fact, he was considered a sure thing to replace Few whenever he decides to retire. But Lloyd couldn’t pass up the opportunity to coach at a historic college hoops power eager to return to that role. Lloyd is 126-33 for a .792 win percentage with three Sweet 16 appearances. And the best is yet to come.
Arizona is 14-0 straight up, 10-4 against the spread, and 8-8 over/under the total. Arizona is one of the most balanced teams in the nation. In turn, Arizona opens the week with a Wednesday home game against the Kansas State Wildcats and then hits the road for a Saturday game against the TCU Horned Frogs. In a similar way to Michigan, Arizona is a deep team, with seven players averaging 9.3 points or more per game.