Put on your high-top dancing shoes as the 68-team NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has been unveiled.
So who are the March Madness favorites to cut down the nets in Monday, April 7 in San Antonio?
The betting odds have been posted and adjusted. And a Sunday night consensus of the NCAA tourney futures boards at the top-rated online sportsbooks reveals Duke, Florida, Auburn, Houston and Tennessee as the top five favorites entering the Big Dance, which begins Tuesday with the initial two First Four games in Dayton, Ohio.
Thirty-two first-round games are set for Thursday and Friday.
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NCAA tournament favorites: Top 10 as of Sunday night
- > Duke +320
- > Florida +425
- > Auburn +435
- > Houston +690
- > Tennessee +1425
- > Alabama +1625
- > Michigan State +2275
- > St. John’s +2300
- > Texas Tech +2825
- > Iowa State +3075
And now for a closer look at the top five favorites, including their seeding, consensus odds and best-value odds to win the NCAA tourney …
NCAA tournament favorites: Duke +320 (best value: +340 Caesars Sportsbook)
The Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament champions (31-3) are the tourney’s No. 2-overall seed and the top seed in the East Region.
The Blue Devils are the top-ranked team in both guru Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings and the NCAA NET rankings and No. 2 in the Bart Torvik ranks. And they were the only team with top-five-ranked offense and defense at kenpom.com and barttorvik.com.
Duke’s path out of the East could have to go through 8-seed Mississippi State, 4-seed Arizona and either No. 2 Alabama or No. 3 Wisconsin. But the coach Jon Scheyer’s most pressing concern is getting star freshman forward Cooper Flagg, the current Wooden Award favorite, back after he missed the final two rounds of the ACC tournament with an ankle injury.
NCAA tournament favorites: Florida +425 (+450 FanDuel Sportsbook)
The Gators (30-4) finished second in the stacked Southeastern Conference — which sent a record 14 teams to the Big Dance, including six top-four seeds — before beating Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee to win the SEC tournament.
Florida is second in the Pomeroy ratings with the nation’s most-efficient offense (128.6 points scored per 100 possessions, adjusted for opponent) and comes in fourth in both the Torvik and NET ranks.
Coach Todd Golden’s squad is one of the nation’s deepest. And as the West Region’s top seed, the Gators’ path to the Final Four could include 8-seed UConn (the two-time defending national champs), 4-seed Maryland and an Elite Eight matchup against either 2-seed St. John’s, the Big East regular season and tourney champ, or 3-seed Texas Tech.
NCAA tournament favorites: Auburn +435 (+450 Caesars)
The Tigers (28-5) won the regular season SEC title with a 15-3 record and spent eight weeks atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll to earn the bracket’s No. 1-overall seed atop the South Region.
Behind big man John Broome, who’s is Flagg’s top challenger for the Wooden Award, Auburn ranks second in the NET, third in the Torvik ratings and fourth in Pomeroy’s metrics. The Tigers are tops in Torvik’s adjusted offensive efficiency ratings at 129.1.
Coach Bruce Pearl’s team, however, hasn’t played its best ball of late, dropping three of its final four games, including a 70-65 loss to Tennessee in the SEC semifinals.
To get to San Antonio, the Tigers could have to find a way past No. 8 Louisville, No. 4 Texas A&M and either No. 2 Michigan State or No. 3 Iowa State. That, of course, is provided Auburn avoids the third 16-over-1-seed first round upset in tourney history.
NCAA tournament favorites: Houston +690 (+750 FanDuel)
Coach Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars (30-4) are an NCAA tourney 1-seed (Midwest) for the third straight season after capturing both the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles.
And the Big 12 tourney win came despite the ankle injury absence of top rebounder and fourth-leading scorer J’Wan Roberts, a senior forward who missed the Big 12 semifinals and title game. Roberts is hopeful to play in the team’s NCAA opener Thursday.
Houston checks in at No. 1 in the Torvik ratings, thanks to the nation's most-efficient adjusted defense (88.0), and is No. 3 in both the Pomeroy ratings and the NET rankings.
Despite No. 1 seedings, the Cougars have fallen short of NCAA expectations in each of the last two seasons, losing in the regional semifinals in each tournament.
This March, Houston’s path out of the Midwest Region could include 8-seed Gonzaga, 4-seed Purdue and either No. 2 Tennessee or No. 3 Kentucky, a pair of SEC heavyweights.
NCAA tournament favorites: Tennessee +1475 (+1700 Fanatics Sportsbook)
The Volunteers (27-7) finished fourth in the SEC regular season and fell to Florida, 86-77, on Sunday in the conference tourney title game.
Coach Rick Barnes’ crew spent five weeks atop the AP poll this season and garnered the No. 2 seed in the Midwest bracket.
Tennessee enters the Big Dance fifth in both the Pomeroy ratings and NET ranks while sitting sixth in the Torvik ratings, thanks largely to the nation’s third-most efficient defense (91.1).
The Vols lost as a 2-seed in the Elite Eight a season ago and are aiming to advance a step higher this March to secure the program’s first-ever Final Four berth.
Provided Tennessee wins its first-round matchup against 15th-seeded Wofford, its highest-possible seed path in the Midwest would include No. 7 UCLA, No. 3 Kentucky — which swept the Vols in home-and-home games during the SEC regular season — and top-seeded Houston.