It’s been a month and a day since the start of the college basketball regular season, so let’s have a look at the NCAA basketball tournament odds to win the 2016-17 championship.
Duke (+308). The Blue Devils started the regular season as the top-ranked team in the Associated Press Poll, and while a single loss was enough to have them dropped to the No. 5 spot, Duke remains the NCAA basketball odds-on favorite to win the 2016-17 championship
– at least at yr SBG Global online sportsbook. The Blue Devils are 10-1 with their only loss so far being a 75-77 defeat to the Kansas Jayhawks at the Champions Classic on November 15th. Duke has won seven games in a row ever since.
Kentucky (+710). The Wildcats started the regular season 7-0 before falling 92-97 to the UCLA Bruins. Kentucky then bounced back with an 87-63 win over the Valparaiso Crusaders and a 96-73 victory over the Hofstra Pride. The Wildcats can sure use the momentum as they set to rekindle their long-standing rivals with the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday, December 17th. Kentucky’s current regular season record stands at 9-1 and are the only team on this list not within the AP top 5.
UCLA (+805). As mentioned above, the Bruins defeated the then-No. 1 Wildcats on December 3rd as part of their – as yet – undefeated regular season. UCLA ranks second in the AP poll, and their NCAA basketball tournament odds are certainly better than last season when they finished 15-17 (6-12 in conference play). Freshman Lonzo Ball is living up to his last name – which is to say that, like Montel Vontavious Porter, he is ballin’!
Kansas (+910). The Jayhawks started off the regular season on the wrong foot, losing to the Indiana Hoosiers in the Armed Forces Classic. In a sense, though, it did them good to get that out of the way earlier, and they rebounded with a vengeance by getting the best of then-No. 1 Duke. Kansas has won ten games in a row since that season-opening slip, and rank 3rd in the AP Poll.
Villanova (+1225). It should go without saying that the current National champions should have good to great NCAA basketball tournament odds the following season, and while the Wildcats are in the thousands as opposed to the hundreds – like the previous teams we have mentioned – they are nonetheless undefeated (10-1) and firmly perched atop both the AP and the Coaches’ polls. Then again, their schedule has been rather on the light side of things, and they have only faced two ranked teams; then-No. 15 Purdue and then-No. 23 Notre Dame.
Baylor (+2550). The Bears are also undefeated (8-0) and round up the AP top 5 at No. 4. Baylor has made quite the quantitative leap from being unranked at the start of the regular season, to debuting at No. 20 in week 3, to reaching the top 10 in week four, and then the top 5 in the following two weeks.