March Madness 2018: Who Will Win The NCAA Tournament? Villanova, Virginia, Duke Favored

Two teams that have become known for their early exits in the NCAA Tournament enter March Madness 2018 as the favorites to win the national championship. Villanova and Virginia have the best title odds after dominant regular seasons.

Villanova sits atop the field with +600 betting odds, and Virginia is right behind the Wildcats at +650. Duke is the only other team with better than 10/1 odds.

Virginia has clearly been the best team in the country all year. After winning the ACC Championship and the ACC Tournament, they’ve got just two losses in 33 games. No other team has fewer than four defeats.

Why isn’t Virginia the NCAA Tournament favorite? Part of it could be their draw to the Final Four, which could include a matchup with No.4 Arizona and top NBA prospect DeAndre Ayton. Their history of recent March Madness failures is probably the biggest factor.

Virginia has been the No.1 seed twice since 2014, and the team wasn’t able to reach the Final Four on either occasion. The Cavaliers lost to No.7 Michigan State as a No.2 seed in 2015, and they didn’t reach the tournament’s second weekend as a No.5 seed last year.

Once again, Virginia is one of the nation’s best defensive teams. Maybe this is the year that their offense will be good enough to win six consecutive games during March Madness.

Villanova has been upset just as many times as Virginia in recent history. In two of the last three years, the Wildcats have fallen short of making the Sweet Sixteen as a No.1 seed. In 2014, head coach Jay Wright’s team was knocked out of the tournament as a No.2 seed in the second round.

The difference between the Wildcats and Cavaliers came two years ago when Villanova won the national title. With two of the 15 Wooden Award finalists in the same lineup, this year’s Villanova team might be as good as the one that cut down the nets in 2016.

Villanova’s title odds are twice as good as Kansas’ odds. The Jayhawks are the No.1 seed in the Midwest region, but both Duke and Michigan State are given a better chance to represent the region in the Final Four.

Ten teams have better odds than Xavier, who is the fourth No.1 seed. No.2 North Carolina and No.3 Michigan are given a better chance to come out of the West, and Gonzaga shares the same odds as the Musketeers.

The Tar Heels are the defending champions, and they were the NCAA runners-up in 2016. Duke won the 2015 national championship.