Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee unveiled its in-season Top 16 overall seeds for the 2020 Big Dance, although there obviously will be plenty of change by Selection Sunday on March 15. The East Region No. 1 was San Diego State of the Mountain West, so perhaps oddsmakers will start taking the Aztecs seriously as they are also the only unbeaten team in the country.
SDSU’s best basketball alum is current Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, and the best team in school history was surely Leonard’s 2010-11 squad that finished 34-3 but lost in the regional semifinal to Connecticut. San Diego State has never reached a Final Four and didn’t even get an NCAA Tournament bid a year ago. It is +1400 to win the national championship.
Quite possible the Aztecs reach the Big Dance without a loss as they are clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the Mountain West, already clinching the regular-season title and winning their two toughest road tests at UNLV and New Mexico. At Boise State on Sunday could be tough, though, as likely will be February 29 at Nevada ahead of the Mountain West Tournament.
No team west of the Mississippi River has won the NCAA Tournament since Arizona in 1997 but that drought could well end on April 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta with San Diego State, Gonzaga and Oregon all legitimate contenders.
The Zags (+900 title favorites) are currently projected as the No. 1 seed in the Big Dance’s West Region, but once again the weak competition in their West Coast Conference leaves some doubters. With all of Gonzaga’s success under Mark Few, the school’s only trip to the Final Four was in 2017 when it lost to North Carolina in the national championship game.
Oregon (+2800) is likely the best team in the Pac-12, although that’s not saying much with that conference very down again this season. Senior Payton Pritchard is one of the top guards in the country and may hold most every school record when he’s done. Oregon played Gonzaga in a Thanksgiving tournament in the Bahamas and the Ducks lost by one in overtime when Pritchard missed a jumper at the buzzer. Oregon has won a national title once … way back in 1939.
