With just about a month to go before March Madness tips off with conference tournaments in college basketball, bettors are still trying to find a championship-caliber team that can challenge the Kentucky Wildcats for the NCAA title. The Wildcats are strong 11/10 favorites to win the 2015 NCAA Tournament, offering very little value to those who like them to cut down the nets in April.
However, that is not to say top-ranked Kentucky is an easy bet to win it all. No college basketball team has finished the season undefeated since the Indiana Hoosiers accomplished the feat in 1976, with three other teams failing to do so after entering the Big Dance without a loss.
The Wichita State Shockers were 34-0 last year before falling to the Wildcats in the Round of 32. The Shockers were the first team since the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1991 to enter the NCAA tournament unbeaten, with Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores preceding them in 1979.
The Hoosiers are one of four schools to ever run the table in college basketball, along with the UCLA Bruins, North Carolina Tar Heels and San Francisco Dons, and Kentucky is looking to join them. The Bruins enjoyed four perfect seasons under legendary head coach John Wooden (1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973).
So who can beat the Wildcats this year? The Duke Blue Devils (8/1), Virginia Cavaliers (8/1), Gonzaga Bulldogs (9/1) and Wisconsin Badgers (9/1) are the biggest threats according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark. The Blue Devils and Cavaliers are both battling for the ACC title, with the former handing the latter its lone loss thus far in the only meeting between the teams on January 31.
The Bulldogs have yet to lose in WCC play this year and boast impressive nonconference wins against the SMU Mustangs, Georgia Bulldogs, St. John’s Red Storm, UCLA Bruins, BYU Cougars and Memphis Tigers. And the Badgers nearly defeated Kentucky in the Final Four last year before the Wildcats went on to lose to the Connecticut Huskies in the national championship game.
