NCAA Basketball Futures: The Kentucky Wildcats are favored to win the 2014-2015 NCAA men’s basketball title this season. The team is listed with NCAA basketball betting odds of 3.5-1. The Wildcats are loaded with talent and many people think this is the best team that John Calipari has ever had at Kentucky and that is saying something considering the 2012 team won the title. Let’s look at this year’s Kentucky Wildcats.
Cats Prohibitive Favorites
When you look at futures it is rare to see one team listed as a big favorite because anything can happen in sports betting. The Wildcats are 3.5-1 which doesn’t sound like such a bad price when the next team in the betting is listed at 8.5-1. The only other team listed at single-digit odds is Wisconsin at odds of 9-1. The only other teams listed with odds of less than 20-1 are Duke at 11-1, North Carolina at 12-1, Kansas at 16-1 and Florida at 18-1.
Cats are Loaded with Talent
The amount of talented players at Kentucky this season is ridiculous. The team has eight players who might have been drafted in the NBA had they gone pro and they have four more big time recruits. They have a total of nine McDonald’s All-Americans and that doesn’t include Willie Cauley-Stein who is projected to be a Lottery pick in the NBA Draft. And this is not the normal diaper dandy team for Calipari as they have six sophomores and two juniors. And Calipari is very high on his team saying, “The levels of practice are high. They’re not backing down from each other. The younger guys are competing. The older guys are coming.”
Team Facts
Last year’s team went 29-11 and made it to the title game before losing. The frontcourt is extremely talented with seven players at 6-8 or taller. They have forwards Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee and they have junior Willie Cauley-Stein, sophomore Dakari Johnson and freshman Karl-Anthony Towns. Not to be left out is 6-9 Derek Willis. The backcourt has twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison. They will be joined by freshman point guard Tyler Ulis, and Devin Booker. The addition of Ulis will help because he can take the pressure off of Harrison. “It’s like he’s a gnat,” Calipari says. “It changes the dynamic of our team right now, because we didn’t have that.”
NCAA Basketball Predictions
The SEC is a good conference so the Wildcats probably won’t go unbeaten but they sure have the talent to do so. This Kentucky team could be one of the best we have seen in many years and anything less than a national title would be a major surprise.
