Sam Avellone
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Whether you are ready for it or not, the college basketball season is right around the corner. We will have a massive slate of hoops to enjoy on Monday, November 4, kicking off at 11:00am ET and wrapping up with a few west coast games that tip off at 11:30 pm ET – including a top-10 matchup between Baylor and Gonzaga in Spokane, WA.
There is quite a bit of variance in college basketball. The regular season is long, and the postseason is a 68-team tournament in which anything can happen. However, that doesn’t mean we should completely avoid making a few preseason predictions. While I recommend avoiding the top of the board from a future bet perspective early in the season before seeing any of these teams play a meaningful game, there is some perceived value to be had in the current market. Considering this, I have identified a couple teams with odds greater than 20/1 that I feel are currently undervalued in the market with a championship ceiling. Let’s first take a look at the current odds to win the national title, and then wrap up with a couple title picks.
Make sure you check Pickswise throughout the season for college basketball picks and NCAAB predictions on all of the biggest games!
2025 NCAA Men’s basketball national championship odds
Odds courtesy of Bet365 at the time of publishing.
- Connecticut Huskies +850
- Duke Blue Devils +1000
- Kansas Jayhawks +1000
- Alabama Crimson Tide +1200
- Houston Cougars +1400
- Gonzaga Bulldogs +1800
- Iowa State Cyclones +1800
- North Carolina Tar Heels +1800
- Baylor Bears +2200
- Arizona Wildcats +2500
- Auburn Tigers +2500
- Arkansas Razorbacks +2800
- Kentucky Wildcats +3500
- Creighton Bluejays +4000
- Purdue Boilermakers +4000
- Rutgers Scarlet Knights +4000
- St. John’s Red Storm +4000
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2025 NCAA Tournament National Championship picks
Baylor Bears to win the National Championship (+2500)
Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook at the time of publishing. Always shop for the best number on futures!
This team is rife with talent, which is a scary proposition for the rest of the Big 12 and the future NCAA Tournament field when you consider the fact that it will be led by a national champion head coach in Scott Drew. Shooting guard Jayden Nunn returns for his second season in Waco after averaging 10.5 points per game and shooting close to 44% from 3-point range on 114 attempts, joining wing Langston Love – who has returned to basketball activity and is practicing following an ankle injury that caused him to miss the NCAA tournament in March – and Josh Ojianwuna. Love will likely be limited early in the season, but once he returns to form, he will give the Bears a productive asset on the perimeter that averaged 11 points per game while shooting 48% from deep last year. Ojianwuna is expected to step into the starting center role with Yves Missi gone to the NBA, and should be ready for the moment. He was highly productive in pick-and-rolls last season with elite efficiency around the rim, an ability to run the floor and great rebounding aptitude.
Outside of those three players, the Bears are going to look completely different, as Drew added a few key transfers to solidify the Baylor starting rotation. Jeremy Roach (Duke) will take over at point guard after averaging 14 points and 3.2 assists per game last season, while Norchad Omier (Miami) brings Final Four experience to the Baylor frontcourt and forward Jalen Celestine (Cal) provides depth and more perimeter shooting. Baylor’s transfers will be joined by a very talented freshman class. Five-star and top 5 recruit VJ Edgecombe should start right away, while 4-stars and top 50 recruits Rob Wright and Jason Asemota are likely to be part of the rotation in some fashion. Drew also brought in an international player in Marino Dubravcic, who has experience playing for Croatia in the FIBA U18 European Championship. He is a bit of a wild card, but could end up being an asset in a frontcourt that admittedly lacks a ton of size.
There aren’t many tune-up games on Baylor’s schedule, which is a bit of a concern with a rotation composed of an array of new pieces. However, I trust Drew to get the best out of this team given the fact that Baylor has made the NCAA Tournament 9 of the last 10 non-COVID seasons under his lead. This team will be battle-tested right out of the gate with two top-25 matchups in the opening week of the season – a road game at Gonzaga and a neutral-site game against John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks. Other non-conference outings include the Baha Mar Hoops tournament games against St. John’s and then Tennessee or Virginia, in addition to a road game at UConn. Considering the level of difficulty in the Big 12, it’s hard to argue the fact that the Bears will at least be fully prepared for the rigors of the NCAA Tournament given their regular season schedule. This team is going to benefit from some outstanding guard play, and if it manages to beat Gonzaga and Arkansas in the opening week of the season, this number will likely vanish.
Xavier Musketeers to win the National Championship (+7500)
Odds courtesy of Bet365 at the time of publishing.
If you’re getting into preseason national championship bets in college basketball, it’s always good to have a longshot in your pocket – but you have to be strategic with these picks despite the appealing odds. I like to target teams led by an experienced coach that are vastly improved on paper year-over-year and likely to play themselves into relevance early in the season with good guard play. This year, I think one of those teams will be the Xavier Musketeers.
Coming off a sub-500 season and a first-round exit from the NIT, Xavier may not jump off the page at first glance. However, this roster has changed dramatically and the Musketeers are led by a very experienced head coach. Sean Miller has a 465-184 career record at the Division 1 level, and while the Musketeers missed the NCAA Tournament last year, they reached the Big Dance in Miller’s first season back in Cincinnati. In fact, they reached the Sweet 16 that year; that was the 8th time Miller has reached the Sweet 16 or later in the NCAA Tournament. He has never made the Final 4, which is a concern, but I think he is certainly capable of leading this roster into the national title picture. Xavier lost a few key contributors from last season in Quincy Olivari (NBA), Desmond Claude (USC) and Abou Ousmane (Oklahoma State), but I really like who Miller replaced them with. The Musketeers added Ryan Conwell (Indiana State), Marcus Foster (Furman), John Hugley (Pitt), Dante Maddux (Toledo) and Cam’Ron Fletcher (Florida State) from the portal, providing much-needed depth to go along with the returning pieces. Point guard Davyion McKnight returns, as does Zach Freemantle – both preseason All-Big East Second Team selections – and Jerome Hunter. Freemantle and Hunter missed the entire season last year, which was part of the reason Xavier finished under .500.
Conwell, Foster and Maddux should provide massive boosts to Xavier’s offense. Conwell was a 40% 3-point shooter on 260 total attempts last season for Indiana State, Foster averaged 17 points per game with Furman last year and Maddox shot better than 42% from deep in his two seasons at Toledo. With those pieces, McKnight should flourish even more as a facilitator and improve on his 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio – which was top 45 nationally last season. The return of Freemantle and Hunter along with the addition of Hugley gives the Musketeers a few experienced and able bodies in the frontcourt, but there is limited depth here due to Long Beach State transfer Lassina Traore’s season-ending knee injury. Xavier’s thin frontcourt is the most concerning attribute of its team profile at this moment, but I think there is enough for a deep March run with Fletcher and returning sophomore Dailyn Swain in the mix as well.
While Xavier’s early season non-conference schedule is very manageable, it also presents some interesting challenges. The Musketeers will be tested against Wake Forest, South Carolina, either Virginia Tech or Michigan, TCU and cross-city rival Cincinnati before Big East play starts, and they have 7 other non-conference games that they should win by a decent margin — providing the transfer-heavy team time to gel before facing its conference foes. It’s a longshot, but at 75/1, I love the value with Xavier and its experienced rotation of guards led by a seasoned head coach in Miller.
