2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Early Value Pick

Last college basketball season, we saw UConn absolutely crush everyone in their path during March Madness on their way to the championship. In the Championship Game, they once again dominated, crushing upstart San Diego State to cut down the nets. They did lose some of their star power after the season, but they still have the sixth best odds to win the title in 2024, sitting at +1600 at DraftKings right now. No team has won back-to-back championships since Florida in 2006-07, so it will certainly be an uphill battle to do that.

Currently, Duke is the favorite at +1100 odds to win the title. That's very unsurprising considering they have one of the best recruiting classes in the nation coming in this year. Kentucky, another blue blood program, sits at +1400 to take home the crown. They have what is probably the best recruiting class in the nation coming in, so you can see how much that matters. However, both of those teams are very young and inexperienced, so we will have to see how that goes.

However, there are several teams that I think have value at their current odds. One of those teams plays in the Big-12.

Texas Longhorns (+2200, DraftKings)

I was a little surprised to see Texas getting 22/1 odds to win the title in 2024. This is a team that made it all the way to the Elite 8 last season before falling to Miami, which was making a bit of a Cinderella run of their own. The Longhorns went through a lot last season with their head coach getting canned mid-season due to domestic violence allegations, so they had to adjust to a new voice and new scheme suddenly. It's a testament to those players that they were able to do just that, and still managed to make it to the Elite 8. I really liked what I saw from them last year, as they played a great brand of defense as always, but had some troubles shooting the ball from deep that limited their ability on that end of the floor.

That should change in 2024 with the addition of transfer Max Abmas from the famous Oral Roberts University. Most of you remember their win over Ohio State a few years ago in the opening round of the Tournament, a game in which Abmas went off and put himself on the radar. Last season, they didn't make any kind of run, but Abmas continued to show his insane shooting ability from beyond the arc. He instantly makes the Longhorns offense better, and now they will have elite shooting from the perimeter, which could be exactly what Texas needed to get over the hump.

On top of this, they were able to retain superstar Tyrese Hunter, who has an instrumental part of the team last season. He averaged 10.3 points per game, but is one of the best defenders at the guard position in college basketball. The one-two punch of he and Abmas in the backcourt should be a joy to watch, and team is going to run through them in 2024. Dillon Mitchell, Dylan Disu, and Kadin Shedrick are expected to round out the starting lineup. Overall, I really like the value on this team at 22/1 odds to win the National Championship next season.