Top 25 College Basketball Analysis & Betting

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Kansas may have won its fourth national championship in 2022, but the Associated Press isn’t convinced they have the best team heading into the 2022-23 college basketball season.

The Jayhawks opened at No. 5 in the preseason AP Top 25. North Carolina, which played Kansas in the final after being an eight seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, was ranked No. 1.

The Tar Heels received 47 of 62 first-place votes from a panel of national media members on Monday, October 17. Voters are banking on the team building off of its success last season, especially as it returns four starters: Caleb Love, R.J. Davis, Leaky Black, and Armando Bacot.

Gonzaga came in second in the preseason poll, while Houston and Kentucky ranked third and fourth, respectively. Here everything you need to know for your bets on the NCAAB.

2022-2023 NCAAB season

AP Preseason Top 25

North Carolina
Gonzaga
Houston
Kentucky
Kansas
Baylor
Duke
UCLA
Creighton
Arkansas
Tennessee
Texas
Indiana
TCU
Auburn
Villanova
Arizona
Virginia
San Diego State
Alabama
Oregon
Michigan
Illinois
Dayton
Texas Tech

Betting Opportunities

There’s a slight disparity between the AP poll and the betting odds to win the NCAA championship, at least for the time being.

While there are differences at sportsbooks, the general consensus is that the University of Houston and the University of Gonzaga have the shortest odds of winning the national championship. One sportsbook has the Tar Heels, the No. 1 team in the AP rankings, at +1110.

That may be the best value you’re going to find for UNC at any point this season. They’ll have one of the most experienced starting lineups this year and will be motivated to win a third title after coming up short last year. Head coach Hubert Davis expects nothing less of his team, either.

“As [the players] opened up their lockers for the first practice of last year, there was a picture of the New Orleans Superdome in there. I wanted them to see where we were headed in April,” Davis said during early workouts in October.

“The hard work and preparation, the practice that had to be put into place to put ourselves in position to do that. It’s the same approach this year compared to last year.”

Betting outright on the NCAA Championship before any games have been played is such a crapshoot but a fun experiment nonetheless. UNC is a great pick at this point, but if you’re looking to score a home run, look no further than the Creighton Blue Jays.

Creighton, which is ranked at an all-time best No. 9 in the preseason rankings, has +2200 odds to win the title this season. With coach Jay Wright gone from Villanova, there’s a belief this Creighton team could win the Big East title for the first time.

They topped the Big East preseason coaches poll, followed by Xavier. Villanova, which dominated the conference for a decade, came in at No. 3.

Creighton returns three starters from last year’s team, including Ryan Kalkbrenner, a 7-foot center who earned Big East Defensive Player of the Year last season with 13.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game.

They’ve also added reigning Summit League Player of the Year Baylor Scheierman from South Dakota State. He averaged 16.2 points per game last season and was almost 47 percent from the three-point range.