Updated College Basketball Championship Odds (Nov 21st)
Posted by Kenny Bell on Monday,November 21, 2016 12:11, EDT in
Duke and Kentucky opened the college basketball season as the two betting favorites to win the national title and those two could easily play for it all on the first Monday in April. But here are a few other teams who have looked good in the early going and might be worth a futures bet on college basketball lines.
Updated College Basketball Championship Odds (Nov 21st)
Kansas Jayhawks (+1100)
The Jayhawks dropped their season opener to Indiana in Hawaii, but Frank Mason’s game winner against Duke on Tuesday shows how good this team can be. Mason hit the winning shot in the final seconds. Mason has been sensational thus far, averaging 23 points, 5.7 assists and 4.7 boards.
Bill Self became the winningest coach in Allen Fieldhouse history with a victory over Siena this weekend, and he now has a 207-9 career mark in the building. Self’s last home loss came nearly three years ago, against San Diego State. KU has won 43 straight since, the nation’s longest home streak. In fact, only nine teams have beaten KU with Self on the sideline at the Phog. Self has never won fewer than 23 games in a season and has averaged 29.6 wins at KU. Kansas has been ranked in each of the last 144 AP polls dating back to the 2008-09 season, which is the longest active streak in NCAA Division I.
The Jayhawks average 87.3 points per game and have a +6.3 scoring margin. KU has outrebounded each of its last two opponents and average 39.7 rebounds per contest with a +4.0 rebound margin. Kansas averages 16.0 assists, 6.3 steals and 5.3 blocked shots per game.
Indiana Hoosiers (+2000)
Indiana looks like the best team in the Big Ten thus far with that win over Kansas in Hawaii. James Blackmon Jr. has exploded out of the gates. Twenty points against Liberty made him just the third Hoosier in the last decade to score 20 or more points in three-consecutive games (Yogi Ferrell, Eric Gordon are the others). He’s also shooting a blistering 51.9 percent from behind the 3-point line.
The Hoosiers are shooting 44.3 percent from behind the 3-point line and 58.7 percent inside it. And when Indiana misses, it often gets a second chance. The Hoosiers are 11th nationally in offensive rebounding rate, pulling in 44.7 percent of their misses. Indiana has now won 19 straight games at home. Saturday’s victory against Liberty marked the seventh season in a row the Hoosiers have started 3-0. IU outrebounded the Flames 55-20, which is the largest rebounding margin (35) since 1972. Indiana's 46 defensive rebounds was the most by a team in Tom Crean era.
Oregon Ducks (+1400)
Yep, Oregon is now a basketball school, not a football school. The Ducks took college basketball by storm last year, going 31-7, winning the Pac-12 and earning a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Yes, Oregon lost to unranked Baylor last week but the Ducks were without start Dillon Brooks, a broad 6-foot-7 wing who led the team in usage, shot rate and assist rate last season. Oregon’s offense seriously missed Brooks in the loss, a game where the Ducks finished with 49 points, their lowest output since a loss to California in 2013. But once Brooks returns from his foot injury, expect the Oregon offense to once again become one of the nation’s biggest headaches to defend. The Ducks return four starters from last season: Brooks (16.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg); single-season blocks record holder Chris Boucher (12.1 ppg, 5.4 ppg, 2.9 bpg), Pac-12 all-freshman wing Tyler Dorsey (12.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and national assist-to-turnover leader Casey Benson (6.0 ppg, 4.9-to- 1 A-TO- R).
