Kentucky Basketball: UK Has Second-Best Odds To Win National Title
The Kentucky basketball program landed an extraordinary recruiting class, but is it the most heavily favored team to win the 2016 NCAA championship?
The Kentucky basketball program has been the pride of Lexington for almost as long as it’s existed. It won its first national championship in 1948 and has since added an additional seven banners to the rafter.
That doesn’t include its other four National Championship Game appearances, 17 total trips to the Final Four, or 30 SEC Conference Tournament championships.
Thus, it comes as no surprise that Kentucky is one of the perennial favorites to win the national championship. There have been down years, but generally speaking, the Wildcats have been NCAA Tournament mainstays.
According to Adam Zagoria of SNY, the Las Vegas odds have been set for which team will become the 2016-17 national champions.
Odds to win NCAA title via @BovadaLV :
Duke 4/1
Kentucky 15/2
Kansas 10/1
Villanova 10/1
Arizona 14/1— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) October 6, 2016
No. 2 isn’t a terrible place to be.
The Duke Blue Devils pulled in one heck of a recruiting class, highlighted by the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the country: Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum. Duke will also return Grayson Allen, who’s a favorite in many National Player of the Year award conversations.
Fair and true as that all may be, this is still bulletin board material for a Kentucky team that’s rarely been the underdog.
No. 2 isn’t exactly underdog status, no, but it’s still something that John Calipari can use to motivate his team. Kentucky, for all of its talent, isn’t expected to win the national championship—not if Duke is the opponent.
That should push every player on the Wildcats to achieve greatness.
Kentucky won the 2012 national championship under Calipari. It also reached the National Championship Game in 2014 and the Final Four in both 2011—when the Wildcats were 29-9—and 2015—when Kentucky finished at 38-1.
The question is: can Kentucky win a second title under Calipari?
The players now have motivation to prove they’re better than Duke.
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