March Madness 2017 Odds: Gonzaga, UCLA Top Favorites, Who Will Play Cinderella?
March Madness is coming. The 2017 NCAA Tournament will officially get underway in less than a month from now when First Four action takes place on March 14-15 from Dayton, Ohio. Before the official madness begins, the conference tournaments will commence in two weeks.
If you are a fan of college basketball, the next six weeks are the most wonderful time of the year!
While there is still two weeks of basketball to be played before the conference tourneys begin, a lot of wagering on teams to win the 2017 NCAA Championship is already coming into the sports books in Las Vegas.
While a lot of attention is being focused on teams like UCLA, Kansas, Louisville, and Duke, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are the current favorites to win the 2017 NCAA Championship. The Zags have quietly destroyed every team they have faced so far during the 2016-17 regular season. Gonzaga is a perfect 26-0 on the season, and the odds of them running the table and finishing with a goose egg in the loss column are pretty good, according to 24/7 Sports.
After a 10-point win earlier this week on the road against St. Mary’s (22-3), the Bulldogs’ odds of closing in on a perfect regular season are looking very realistic. However, when it comes to the NCAA tournament, history has shown us that any school who gets into the big dance can compete for the NCAA title.
Cinderella shows up every year, but NCAA fans just never know where or when she will arrive.
Gonzaga is led by point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, a man who will one day be pounding the hardwood in the NBA. Williams-Goss, in his first season in Spokane after transferring from Washington, is determined to prove to the college basketball world that the Zags are no fluke come tourney time.
“I want it bad, I want the national championship bad, to kind of put to rest all the naysayers,” Williams-Goss said.
Unbeaten Gonzaga (26-0), who are 4-0 vs. ranked opponents so far this season, claimed the No. 1 spot in the land for the third straight week and will most likely finish on top if they run the table. The Bulldogs are followed by Villanova, Kansas, Baylor, and Arizona.
While the Zags won’t go away easy, neither will their competition.
UCLA finds itself near the top of the polls and the betting odds once again. They also are on many people’s radar to be a Sweet Sixteen team. The Bruins have the best offense, averaging 91 points per game and shooting nearly a whopping 54 percent from the field. With numbers like that, it is no surprise that the Bruins are considered one of the best teams in college basketball today.
Other teams to keep an eye on are Duke and Kansas. The Blue Devils are surging following the return of head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Led by Grayson Allen, Luke Kennard, and Jayson Tatum, the Blue Devils are going to be one tough out this March.
Kansas is also playing great in the month of February, and they had one of their biggest wins of the season after storming back to defeat West Virginia on Monday night. The Jayhawks are 23-3 on the season and are led by senior point guard Frank Mason III. Mason can do it all on the court. He is averaging 20 points per game along with 4.9 assists. Mason, along with rising star Josh Jackson, will make KU one tough squad to face in tournament play.
Below is a list of the top ten favorites to win the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Be sure to click here to see the odds for every team.
[Featured Image by Grant Halverson/Getty Images]
