As always, the NCAAB field is set to be huge and simply picking a winner from the 68-team tournament remains incredibly difficult, never mind landing a perfect bracket across all 63 games.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find an angle into the competition before it starts later this month.
There are plenty of other ways to get involved in this month’s tournament. Below are a few other markets you might want to consider.
| What | NCAAB Championship 2023 |
| Where | United States |
| When | Wednesday 15th March - Monday 3rd April 2023 |
| How to watch | BT Sport and ESPN Player |
| Odds | Houston 6/1, Alabama 8/1, Kansas 8/1, UCLA 10/1, Purdue 12/1 |
NCAAB Championship to reach last four odds
The NCAAB Championship is notorious for upsets, with all four number one seeds making it to the last four just once in the 37 editions since the 1985 expansion.
On 16 occasions – including the 2022 tournament – just one of the four top seeded teams were left standing in the last four. However, in 20 seasons there has been a minimum of two that have made it to that stage, while 24 of the last 37 national titles have been claimed by a number one seed.
That should mean it’s little surprise that the four projected number one seeds lead the way in the betting to make the last four of this year’s NCAAB Championship.
6/1 title favourites Houston can be backed at 6/5 to make it all the way through the regional rounds. With the semi-finals and final being held in Houston, UH could have huge home support if they live up to that billing.
After that come the other three projected top seeds, with Alabama at 9/5 to make the final four and defending champions Kansas at 9/5, while 11-time winners UCLA can be backed at 11/5.
Of course, the nature of the tournament means surprise sides can have deep runs in the competition. Five schools have previously made the last four as an 11-seed – LSU (1986), George Mason (2006), Virginia Commonwealth (2011), Loyola Chicago (2018) and UCLA (2021).
Both VCU and UCLA did it coming through from the very start of the tournament. They were both one of eight sides to feature in the opening round for the competition’s lowest-ranked programs.
Projected 11-seeds Utah State and Mississippi State are 40/1 outsiders to match those Cinderella runs.
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NCAAB Championship other markets
If you don’t want to go out and back a team for a national title or deep run, you could consider looking for markets which bunch schools by seed or by conference.
With 65% of all winners being a top seed, you could get some value looking further down. However, 33 of the last 37 winners of the tournament were a 3-seed at least, so if there’s a lower-ranked side you like the look of then backing them to reach the last four could be enough.
NCAAB Championship MOP winner
Closer to the tournament you can expect to see odds for the standout player of the tournament, who receives the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) award.
In the meantime, here are a few recent trends to consider when it comes to finding the tournament’s breakout name.
Last season’s winner was Ochai Agbaji, who has since gone on to play 42 games for the Utah Jazz in the NBA after being traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs took Agbaji 14th in the draft after he posted 18.8 points per game in his fourth year with the title-winning Kansas.
The award has been handed out every year since 1939 and on only 12 occasions did the player who won MOP not play for the championship winner.
The last man to take home MOP without a championship win was Akeem Olajuwon with Houston in 1983. It’s been an incredibly long time since a non-champion took the prize and it’s hard to see a player of that calibre coming through this year.
This upcoming NBA draft has a consensus top two and neither are set to feature in the NCAAB Championship. The G League Ignite’s Amen Thompson is in the running for third, leaving Alabama’s Brandon Miller and the Orlando Magic’s Cam Whitmore as the standout pair.
However, Agbaji is the latest ‘older’ player to scoop the award. Tyus Jones was the last freshman to win MOP back in 2015. Since then, each of the winners have been in their third or fourth year.
Recent winners have also tended to go in the middle of the draft or later, as lottery teams usually take the raw potential seen in freshmen or sophomores.
Given that, Houston senior Marcus Sasser fits the bill. The Texas native is 6/1, with the 22-year-old scoring 17 points per game. His streak of 20-point games to end the regular season shows what he can do and if he returns to that form in March, he’s a good MOP option.
