College Basketball Betting: 4 Best Bets To Win 2021 NCAA Tournament

By BetOnline October 13, 2020

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The 2020-2021 college basketball season will start in a month and a half. Everyone in the NCAA and in the college basketball world expects to play a 2021 NCAA Tournament after the 2020 event was cancelled because of the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Let’s take a look at the teams which are best situated to win March Madness next year.

Virginia

The Virginia Cavaliers struggled for much of last season, largely because they were missing lottery pick DeAndre Hunter, 3-point shooter Kyle Guy, and star floor general Ty Jerome. The 2019 national champions were expected to regress, because they couldn’t have been any better than they were in 2019. Some degree of erosion was inevitable.

For a month and a half in the middle of the season, from late December through early February, Virginia’s offense fell off a cliff. The Cavs weren’t blown out on most nights, but they genuinely lacked answers on offense and seemed to be a team which would plummet to a No. 7 or 8 NCAA Tournament seed. Given that Virginia had been a No. 1 seed in three of the previous four NCAA Tournaments, that’s quite a dropoff.

Yet, the Cavaliers didn’t allow bad offense to lead to bad defense. UVA persevered and survived a number of ugly games, then gained momentum from those wins to elevate its level of play. The Hoos placed second in the Atlantic Coast Conference and were probably going to make the NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed, maybe No. 4. This season, big man Mamadi Diakite will not be around anymore, but point guard Kihei Clark will be back, and the roster will receive a huge boost from incoming Marquette transfer Sam Hauser. Virginia has a great chance to win the ACC, and if the Cavaliers are able to meet most of their preseason expectations, they will certainly gain a high seed (top-two) in the NCAA Tournament and have a bracket which will give them a real shot at another Final Four. They will be heard from if they stay healthy.

Gonzaga

The Bulldogs were a No. 1 seed this past season and now return a large majority of their important starters for the new season. Gonzaga’s rise in college basketball, which began six years ago in the 2014-2015 season, was built on graduate transfers offering veteran talent with homegrown players to create a roster with better talent and on-court fluidity due to players having experience and savvy. This next season, Gonzaga will have plenty of experience from all of its returning starters and role players. Gonzaga will be at the front of the line for a No. 1 seed in the West, and any No. 1 seed is naturally a best bet to make the Final Four. Not all top seeds get there, but at least one or two do in most seasons.

Kansas

The Jayhawks entered the 2020 NCAA Tournament – before it was canceled – as the pick to win it all for most college basketball analysts. KU would have been evaluated as a superior team compared to the other three expected No. 1 seeds in the tournament: Baylor, Gonzaga, and Dayton. This season, the Jayhawks will bring most of their roster back. They won the Big 12 title after losing the conference in 2019. Kansas had won 14 straight Big 12 titles from 2005 through 2018, so when the 2019 team lost the plot, there was reason to be concerned. However, the 2020 team put things back in order, and the 2021 team is in position to build on what the 2020 team reestablished. This team will be built to thrive in the NCAA Tournament.

Villanova

The Villanova Wildcats won the national title in 2016. They lost on the opening weekend in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats won the national championship again in 2018. Then they lost players from that decorated team and struggled for much of 2019 and 2020, while other Big East teams such as Creighton and Seton Hall had more success in the conference. Villanova was missing key components of a complete team (the teams that won titles in 2016 and 2018), chiefly a polished big man with a significant low-post presence who could feast against defenses which are focused on guarding Villanova’s wing 3-point shooters. Nova lacked that big man last year but is expected to be a lot better in the paint this season. That alone will make the Wildcats a much tougher out.