NCAA Basketball Betting Matchup
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North Carolina Tar Heels early 2009 NCAA Basketball favorite
The 2009 NCAA Tournament may be more than 10 months away, but College Basketball betting fans can get early March Madness odds at online sportsbooks.
Next year’s Men’s College basketball tournament is scheduled to begin on March 17, 2009, and will conclude with the championship game at Ford Field in Detroit on April 6.
The North Carolina Tar Heels, The East No. 1 seed who made it to the 2008 Final Four but lost to eventual champion Kansas Jayhawks, are the early favorite to win the NCAA Championship at 9-2 odds at Bovada.
The next favorite is the Duke Blue Devils at 10-1. Duke bowed out in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament to the West Virginia Mountaineers but was 28-6 SU and 13-3 ACC last season. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 9 in the nation heading into March Madness, and will lose just one senior going into the 2008-2009 season.
The UCLA Bruins, the No. 1 seed in the West, are 14-1 to win the national championship next season. UCLA lost to the Memphis Tigers in the Final Four. The Bruins will lose a few underclassmen to the NBA, but will be able to adequately fill those spots with four recruits ranked in the top 51.
Also at 14-1 are the Louisville Cardinals, who were knocked out in the Elite Eight round.
Defending champion Kansas is 20-1 to repeat. The Jayhawks’ have a number of question marks regarding returning players, which could seriously hamper a return to the Final Four and a championship.
Interestingly, the Jayhawks’ opponent in the 2008 championship, Memphis, also is 20-1. The Tigers were two seconds away from the National Championship this season before Kansas posted its comeback. The Tigers’ entire starting lineup last season has declared for the NBA draft.
Some longshots include Iowa (200-1), Tulsa (300-1), and Hawaii (500-1).
