With November inching nearer every day sports fans can’t wait any longer for college basketball betting to officially begin. As the season draws nearer those who bet on sports should begin to expose themselves to as much information as possible in order to make the best possible future predictions. One team who is always in contention for the national title is the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks have appeared in 14 NCAA tournaments and have won the conference championship 5 times.
This season the Ducks will be led by 7th year head coach Dana Altman. Altman set a school record last season by leading the first Oregon team to earn the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately Altman wasn’t able to lead them to victory as they lost to Oklahoma in the Elite Eight. But making it to the Elite Eight is no easy task and this season Altman will be vying to win his first national title ever. Let’s check in on the college basketball betting odds and see what they think of Altman’s future success.
Odds to Win NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship 2016 – 2017
Oregon Ducks +1825
As is all too common in college basketball next year’s Oregon team will not have exactly the same roster. They’ve had to part was with three players who graduated: Elgin Cook, Max Heller, and Dwayne Benjamin. They will also be without Kendall Small who decided to transfer somewhere closer to his hometown of Anaheim, CA, the University of Pacific. However they have more than their share of incoming recruits to help plug the holes left by these players. Kavell Bigby Williams is an incoming transfer out of Gillette College, a community college based in Gillette, Wyoming. On top of transfers they also have a stellar recruiting class coming in this year.
Keith Smith is a small forward coming out of Rainier Beach High School (Seattle, Washington). The 6’7” graduate is ranked as a 4-star recruit nationwide and is the #67th prospect from the 2016 class. Oregon has another 4-star recruit on its list and this one doesn’t have to travel halfway across the country to play for the school. Payton Pritchard is a point guard out of West Linn High School (West Linn, Oregon) who has been preparing to play for Oregon since his freshman year.
Adding to their listof 4-star recruits is power forward Michael Cage Jr. out of Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California). Cage comes in at an impressive 6’9” and 225 lbs. He postponed committing to the Ducks the longest waiting until September 26th, 2015 to announce his decision. These players, and Oregon’s returning stars, should be more than enough to account for the talent that departed from the Ducks.
Last season the Ducks were able to make it to the Elite 8 with an impressive win over the then-reigning champions, Duke. Unfortunately they weren’t able to transfer that success into the final stages of the tournament. With an optimal recruiting class, and the right coaching, this 2016 Oregon team could very well win the #1 seed once more, as well as becoming college basketball betting favorites.