The race atop the national championship odds has tightened as the college basketball regular season enters the home stretch.
Despite tallying straight-up victories in nine consecutive outings, the Michigan State Spartans now find themselves knotted with the Villanova Wildcats as +500 co-favorites on the odds to win the 2018 NCAA tournament at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Michigan State is coming off a lopsided 87-57 win over the free-falling Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday to improve its overall SU record to 24-3. However, the Spartans have been somewhat of a disappointment at the sportsbooks, recording just three against-the-spread victories in 12 contests ahead of Saturday afternoon’s matchup with the Northwestern Wildcats at Allstate Arena.
The Spartans have dueled for top spot on the national championship odds since opening the season alongside the Duke Blue Devils at +400, but have struggled to put away opponents, claiming victory by just three points in three of their past four outings, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database.
Winners of four straight Big East conference titles, Villanova remains in a pitched battle with Xavier for first place in the conference standings. The Wildcats have remained a consistent wager on the season, but raised eyebrows with last week’s stunning 79-75 loss to last-place St. John’s as a heavy 16-point favorite in just their second regular-season defeat in 31 home contests since January 2016.
The Spartans and Wildcats must also contend with a rising star on the college basketball futures. With an impressive 23-2 SU record, the surprising Virginia Cavaliers have rocketed up the national championship odds, and now join the Blue Devils at +600.
Little had been expected from the Cavaliers, who opened the current campaign as a distant +7500 bet after finishing fifth in the ACC standings with a middling 11-7 conference record a year ago. However, Virginia quickly established itself as a defensive force, holding opponents to 50 or fewer points on 12 occasions this season, while the Cavaliers offense has averaged 2.0 more points per game compared to their 2017 campaign.
But the great challenge for Virginia will be to overcome its recent struggles during March Madness, where they have advanced past the Sweet 16 just once in 10 appearances since 1993.
Duke remains among the favorites despite having stumbled recently, including suffering a 65-63 loss to the Cavaliers as a 3.5-point home favorite on Jan. 27.
Further down the national championship odds, the Purdue Boilermakers maintain respectable +750 odds, well ahead of the Arizona Wildcats and Kansas Jayhawks at +2000, while the Musketeers join the Cincinnati Bearcats at +2500.
For more odds info, picks, and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes, or check it out at OddsShark.libsyn.com.