March Madness news: Duke, Kansas favored to win 2025 men's national title over UConn
07/04/2024 19:34
Whether Purdue wins its first-ever or UConn wins its sixth — and second in a row — men's college basketball title on Monday, the odds are they won't be back in the championship game in 2025. While next year's March Madness tournament is still a long way away, Las Vegas is giving Duke and Kansas the best chance to make it to the end of the bracket in next year's men's college basketball finale.
UConn, Purdue in the mix but not favored for March Madness 2025
A lot can, and will, happen between now and March 2025. However, it's never too early to put a few dollars down on the team that could walk away with the college basketball crown.
Ahead of the 2024 championship game, FanDuel has Duke as the favorite to win next season at +1200 odds, which are the same odds as Kansas has to take home the crown. After that, the bookmakers like Alabama (+1500), Houston (+1500), North Carolina (+1500), and UConn (+1800).
Purdue, which is losing superstar big man Zach Edey after the season, is one of five teams tied for the ninth-best odds (+3000).
In between this year's combatants are Arizona and Kentucky (+2000). Then it's Tennessee, Baylor, Texas, and Gonzaga tied with Purdue.
Why are Duke and Kansas favored in 2025?
It is no surprise that Jon Scheyer's 2025 Duke team is one of the two favorites to take ho mete men's college basketball championship next season. The third-year headman has a historic recruiting class that includes Cooper Flagg, one of the best high school prospects in years.
In addition to the 6-foot-9 Flagg, the No. 1 prospect in the class, per 247Sports, the Blue Devils are also bringing in the No. 1 center and No. 3 overall prospect 7-foot-2 Khaman Malauch, 6-foot-6 Isaiah Evans (No. 3 SF, No. 12 overall), 6-foot-5 Kon Knueppel (No. 5 SF, No. 14 overall), 6-foot-11 Patrick Ngongba (No. 5 C, No. 18 overall), and 6-foot-6 Darren Harris (No. 15 SF, No. 51 overall).
With this class alone, it wouldn't be a shock if Duke had a great year in 2025. However, as this year's stars — Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain, Mark Mitchell, and Tyrese Proctor — haven't made their NBA decisions yet, Scheyer's squad next season could be incredible.
The Kansas side of the ledger is a little more intriguing. Bill Self's team has the No. 9 recruiting class in the nation coming in next season with three big-time prospects. This includes 6-foot-8 Flory Bidunga (No. 3 C, No. 11 overall), 6-foot-4 Labaron Philon (No. 3 PG, No. 32 overall), and 6-foot-5 Rakease Passmore (No. 14 SG, No. 50 overall).
The Jayhawks also already have transfer portal commitments from 6-foot-4 PG Zeke Mayo from South Dakota State and 6-foot-5 guard Riley Kugel from Florida. With Self's history of success in the transfer portal these last few years and a lot of great players in the portal still unaccounted for, the short odds for Kansas to win it all last year are likely based on the assumption more players are coming.
Even if they don't, KJ Adams, Johnny Furphy, and Dajuan Harris have all confirmed that they are coming back for next season.
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