It has been 17 years since an NCAA men’s basketball team hoisted a second straight national championship trophy, with Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators teams of 2006 and 2007 the last to do so. But can fans and legal online sports betting customers look for another repeat champ in 2024?
Coach Dan Hurley’s Connecticut Huskies squad is primed to break into that club, with the Big East stalwarts sitting at 24-2 for the season. UConn, the defending national champions, has sat atop the Associated Press media poll for six weeks running and this week’s rankings have the Huskies as the unanimous No. 1, taking all 62 first-place votes.
That consistency has the Huskies as the title favorite on Caesars Sportsbook, at +450, to win the national championship. Those odds are comfortably ahead of Purdue (+700), Houston (+900) and Arizona (+900), ahead of UConn’s road clash against No. 15-ranked Creighton tonight in Omaha, Nebraska. That 8:30 p.m. Eastern time tip on FS1 carries a -145 moneyline for the Huskies on ESPN BET, with UConn listed as a 2.5-point road favorite on the national mobile sportsbook.
Ahead of that Tuesday night Big East showdown, U.S. Betting Report updated our NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament seeding odds for the Huskies, with UConn looking more and more set on the top seed line in 2024. Folks who use U.S. sports betting apps can look forward to this guide from us all the way up until Selection Sunday.
Even if the Huskies lost their last five regular-season games and their first-round Big East tourney game, they’d still be an absolute lock for the NCAA Tournament.
Connecticut Huskies NCAA Tournament Seed Odds
| Seed | Pct. Chance | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Seed | 50% | -100 |
| 2 Seed | 25% | +300 |
| 3 Seed | 14.3% | +600 |
| Other | 10% | +900 |
Where Will UConn Basketball Wind Up Seeded In 2024?
The Huskies have been a No. 1 seed five times in the program’s history, doing so in 1990, 1996, 1999, 2006 and 2009 — though only one of the Huskies’ five national titles came in a season where they entered on the top line. That was in 1999, when UConn beat UTSA, New Mexico, Iowa, Gonzaga, Ohio State and Duke in succession to cap off its first championship. The other titles for the Huskies came in 2004, 2011, 2014 and last season. The 2023 champs had +1600 odds at BetMGM Sportsbook to win it all entering the tourney.
This year, UConn has commanding No. 1 seed odds (-100) from us at USBettingReport.com, speaking to the Huskies’ outstanding metrics. At KenPom.com, the Huskies are ranked second nationally behind Houston; on the NCAA’s NET ranking system, Hurley’s squad is fourth, behind Houston, Purdue and Arizona.
Moving forward, the Huskies can cement their status as a No. 1 seed by taking care of business against the Bluejays tonight. Then UConn must navigate home games on Saturday against Villanova and on March 3 against Seton Hall, the only team to beat the Huskies this season in league play.
Down the stretch, UConn is set to close out the regular season with consecutive Big East road games, March 6 at No. 7 Marquette and March 9 at Providence.
DraftKings Sportsbook rates UConn at +110 odds to make the Final Four for the seventh time in program history, in what could be a finish to remember in Connecticut during March Madness.
