Now that recruiting for the 2012 class is over and that the early entrants for the NBA Draft is complete the odds for who will cut down the nets in 2013 have been released by Bovada, and UNLV comes in at 40/1 to win the title.
Here are the early odds:
Indiana 7/1
Louisville 8/1
Kentucky 10/1
Duke 15/1
Florida 15/1
North Carolina 15/1
UCLA 15/1
Kansas 18/1
Michigan 20/1
North Carolina State 20/1
Ohio State 20/1
Syracuse 20/1
Michigan State 22/1
Arizona 25/1
Baylor 25/1
Memphis 25/1
Creighton 30/1
St. John's 30/1
Missouri 35/1
Texas 35/1
Florida State 40/1
Georgetown 40/1
Pittsburgh 40/1
Stanford 40/1
UNLV 40/1
Seeing UNLV at 40/1 is a little bit low in my opinion since they have the No. 30 rated 2012 recruiting class by Rivals, but that is before the addition of Anthony Bennett who is rated as the No. 7 overall prospect. In the early preseason polls ESPN has UNLV on the cusp of being ranked, this also done before Bennett signed, and then they are ranked at No. 10 in SB Nation's preseason poll (again also before Bennett signed):
Who they're losing: F Chace Stanback, G Oscar Bellfield, F Brice Massamba, G Kendall Wallace
Who they're bringing back: F Mike Moser, F Anthony Marshall, G Justin Hawkins, F Carlos Lopez, F Quintrell Thomas
Who they're adding: F Khem Birch, G Katin Reinhardt, C Demetris Morant, G DaQuan Cook, F Anthony Bennett.
Double-double machine Mike Moser, who was probably the best player in college basketball over the season's first month, has opted to stick around for another year and is the main reason the Rebs figure to garner some serious preseason love. He, Anthony Marshall and Pitt transfer Khem Birch compose a trio of forwards that can match up with any in the country, but the issue for Dave Rice will be finding consistency from his backcourt. The addition of incoming freshman sharp-shooter Katin Reinhardt should assist in offsetting the loss of second leading scorer Chase Stanback.
UNLV has a real shot to make some noise in the NCAA tournament with their mix of returning talent and incoming freshman. At 40/1 to win the NCAA title that is a pretty good bet to take for those who like to wager on such things, because once UNLV starts rolling through the schedule these odds will probably increase.