Basketball fans were hoping for some good news this week about the NBA lockout –
instead, what they got was the cancellation of the first two weeks of the
league's regular season. The NBA and its players don't seem to be any closer to
an agreement now than they were during the summer, meaning we might not see any
games any time soon. No NBA? Head to the Bodog Sportsbook to place your bets on college
basketball futures.
Any professional games, that is. The college season
will get underway on time and give hoops fans their basketball
betting fix with early-season tournaments and non-conference clashes before
the schedule gets serious in January and into March Madness. Here's a rundown of
what schools are headlining the odds lists as the campus tip-offs get
closer.
Tar Heels
tops on NCAA tourney futures list
The Kentucky Wildcats upset
the North Carolina Tar Heels 76-69 in regional final action in last year's NCAA
Tournament en route to a berth in the Final Four, and they brought in the
top-ranked recruiting class over the summer (North Carolina was No. 9). Does
that give the Wildcats the edge on the college
basketball betting lines at the Bodog
Sportsbook?
It doesn't. North Carolina enters the season as the 3/1
favorite on that odds list to win the NCAA Tournament in 2012, with Kentucky
right behind them at 5/1 odds. While the Tar Heels didn't see any players depart
in the offseason, the Wildcats gave up guards Brandon Knight and DeAndre Liggins
and center Josh Harrellson to the NBA Draft. That gives the advantage to North
Carolina as they look to get back to the Final Four this
year.
Blue Devils headline second tier of
contenders
The Duke Blue Devils are always competitive on the college
basketball odds board, and they're third at 8/1 to win the NCAA Tournament
next spring. Louisville and Ohio State follow next at 17/2 odds, with Syracuse
at 12/1, Connecticut at 14/1, and each of Florida, Kansas, and Texas sitting at
20/1 odds to come out on top at the Big Dance. Butler, which fell to UConn in
last year's title game, is well back at 60/1 to win this time around.
And
if you're looking to making a bold NCAA Tournament prediction and try to cash in
on a longshot wager next April you'll have to dig deep into the odds list for a
team like Virginia Commonwealth, which sits at 100/1 odds to be crowned
champions in 2012. The Rams won their region as a No. 11 seed last year then
fell to Butler in the Final Four.
Tip-off tournaments get
underway in November
For those wagers, though, we have to wait
for next spring to reap any rewards. For more immediate payouts on the basketball
odds we have the early-season college hoops tournaments, which will get
underway in November. That includes the NIT Season Tip-Off, which will feature
top schools like Syracuse, Oklahoma State, Stanford, and Virginia Tech; that
event gets started on Monday, November 14, with the championship game set for
Friday, November 25 at Madison Square Garden.
The 2011 Paradise Jam,
which takes place in the Virgin Islands and features such schools as Virginia,
TCU, and Ole Miss this season, also gets underway on November 14, while the
Maui Invitational, which will have Duke, Kansas, Michigan, and UCLA in the
field, starts up on November 21. And if you want to see how North Carolina and
Kentucky match up in the early going, they'll hit the hardwood together on
Saturday, December 3.
*****
| Kyle Hunter | |
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