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NCAA Tournament Tickets - Predicting the National Champion Part III
This article seeks to determine the teams with the best possible chance of winning the NCAA Basketball national championship. In Parts I and II I discussed North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Duke, Connecticut and Wake Forest. Of these teams, which have the best odds of getting to the national championship according to http://oddschecker.com, I decided that Duke and Wake Forest were most deserving of your wagers. Once you get out of the top five or so teams, you really start to find some tempting odds. Here are some of the teams I like (and don't like) within the 16/1 to 20/1 odds range. All betting odds were taken from http://oddschecker.com as of January 12, 2009.
Second Tier National Title Contenders
UCLA (16/1)
I'm not quite sure where Vegas gets off putting the Bruins at such a high spot in their national championship odds. They must think that Final Four streaks mean more than they seem, or they know something we don't. UCLA should do well in the Pac-10 portion of the season (the conference is at a low point this year) but they certainly won't be ready to battle Big East or ACC teams in the Tourney. You'll probably see UCLA with some NCAA Tournament tickets to the Sweet Sixteen (which for any normal team is a season for the ages), but that's where it will end. UCLA's only win of any quality this year was against USC in an "away" game.
Oklahoma (16/1)
The Sooners are ranked No. 6 in the AP right now, and they have a sting of impressive wins versus teams like Davidson, UAB, USC, Purdue, Tulsa, Utah, and most recently Kansas State. With a solid record of putting away good-but-not-elite teams, the Sooners make a nice pick to go far in the Tourney. If they drop a few conference games and their odds shoot to the 20s, I'd recommend putting a few bucks on Oklahoma.
Georgetown (16/1)
Georgetown had an aggressive schedule to start out the year, and they paid for it with three losses as of January 12, 2009. Still, with a No. 13 ranking and impressive offensive and defensive efficiency stats (117.6 and 87.6, respectively), plus this fairly optimistic betting line, some people out there believe in the Hoyas. Georgetown lost to great teams: Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame. More losses will come in the Big East section of the schedule. I see this team going into the Tourney wobbly, but making a good run. Wait for the betting line to get better before going in on Georgetown.
Texas (20/1)
Texas proved they could play with the big boys with wins over UCLA, Villanova and Wisconsin, but then blew their shot at becoming elite with loses to Michigan State, Notre Dame and Arkansas. Right now the Texas Longhorns are too unpredictable to chance a wager on, and I really don't like their free throw percentage (ranked No. 284 in the country at 63%). Still they play solid defense, with a defensive efficiency ranking of 87.0.
Out of this group the pick seems to be Georgetown, followed closely by Oklahoma. Texas and UCLA will have to show more consistent greatness in their conferences in order to become elite national title contenders. No matter who you decide to cheer on to the title game, you could always put down some dough at http://www.stubhub.com/ncaa-tournament-tickets for NCAA Tournament tickets, because they're the safest bet in the house if you're interested in seeing a few amazing college basketball games.
About the Author This article was written by Brent Warnken, sponsored by StubHub. For all the best sports tickets like NCAA Tournament tickets, concert tickets, theatre tickets or special events tickets, the best place to look is StubHub.com.
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