Final Four Betting Odds Whip Around: March 1st, 2012

If there was any question who the top team in the land was, the pistol whipping Kansas put on the Oklahoma State Cowboys the other night doesn’t make it any clearer.

The Jayhawks stated a case to be considered a strong contender for a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament by winning another Big 12 title outright against the Pokes. The story of Kansas really boils down to Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor. There’s no question that they have boat loads of talent, but the lackluster games in between the brilliant ones raise concern. Big wins against Baylor twice and the overtime win against Missouri recently are just overshadowed by the losses to unranked Iowa State, unranked Davidson at home, and against both Duke and Kentucky. Duke and Kentucky are significant because they are the type of team that Kansas will have to be able to beat to have any shot at the trophy. It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where they won’t have a stretch of 3 very tough games against very talented teams, so the inconsistency could haunt them.

But the AP Top 25 is filled with plenty of teams that have far more skeptics than Kansas. In fact, compared to a majority of the teams ranked 10-25, Kansas looks like the Lakers with Shaq. #9 Murray State, #14 Wichita State, #17 UNLV, #21 Saint Mary’s, #23 San Diego State, and #25 Temple are all teams that are running on borrowed time. Eventually the inevitable wall named Kentucky, Ohio State, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, or Syracuse will come to stop the dream season. Only my neighbor Charlie thinks that Murray State is for real, and we all know how wrong Charlie can be. And, I’m assuming by the deeper divide there seems to be between the upper and middle class this year means there won’t be any Butler’s or VCU’s, so I’m targeting a handful of favorites to win it all. But hey, the NCAA tournament is more fun when people like me are proven wrong.

The Big 12 Champ, Kansas, is given 10/1 odds to win the championship according to Bovada’s NCAA Tournament betting odds. As far as the possible teams lining up to fit into the glass slipper, the odds are spread across several sports betting sites but most have Murray State at 80/1 (Bet365), Wichita State at 50/1, UNLV at 50/1, Saint Mary’s at 150/1, San Diego State at 150/1, and Temple at 60/1. It’s easy to predict that the championship will go to one of the top 10 teams, but don’t go saying that around Shaka Smart whose VCU Rams are currently sitting with 150/1 odds to win the NCAA Tournament after making it to the Final Four last season.

To see the rest of the odds to win the Final Four, click this link or on the banner to view them directly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *