The NCAA Tournament is down to 32 teams. What are Kentucky’s odds to make a deep run?

Ben Roberts
·2 min read
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The NCAA Tournament round of 32 is set, and the Kentucky Wildcats are still dancing.

UK defeated Providence 61-53 on Friday night to win its first March Madness game in four years and advance to a second-round matchup with Kansas State at 2:40 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

How far can the Wildcats go?

Oddsmakers have already set new lines for the tournament now that all of the second-round matchups have been set.

Caesars Sportsbook pegs Kentucky as a 22-1 shot to win the NCAA championship, making the Cats the 12th most likely team to get the 2023 title, according to those numbers.

Alabama and Houston are tied at the top with 5-1 odds to win the title. Next is UCLA at 9-1, followed by Kansas, Texas and Duke — all with 12-1 odds. Marquette, Gonzaga and UConn are all 15-1 to win the title, followed by Baylor at 16-1 and Tennessee at 20-1.

The March Madness bracket lost some of its top-seeded teams over the first two days of the tournament. Purdue became just the second No. 1 seed to fall in the first round with a loss to Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday. No. 2-seeded Arizona and No. 4-seeded Virginia also lost in the first round.

National title odds for the rest of the teams left in the NCAA Tournament field, as of Saturday morning: Creighton (25-1), Miami (35-1), Indiana (40-1), Xavier (40-1), Saint Mary’s (40-1), TCU (45-1), Arkansas (50-1), Michigan State (50-1), San Diego State (50-1), Kansas State (50-1), Florida Atlantic (60-1), Auburn (80-1), Maryland (80-1), Penn State (100-1), Missouri (125-1), Pittsburgh (150-1), Northwestern (150-1), Furman (400-1), Princeton (400-1) and Fairleigh Dickinson (1,000-1).

East Regional odds

Kentucky is the 6 seed in the East Regional, and Kansas State is the 3 seed, but UK still opened as a two-point favorite over K-State, according to the Caesars Sportsbook.

What are Kentucky’s chances of making its first Final Four in eight years?

The Caesars odds have the Cats at +650 (or 13-2 odds) to win the East Regional, which will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 23 and 25. That puts the Cats with just the fifth-shortest odds to advance.

Duke is the favorite in the East at +275, Marquette is next at +310, with Tennessee (+500) and FAU (+525) after that. They’re followed by UK (+650), K-State (+800), Michigan State (+1100) and Fairleigh Dickinson (+7500).

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