Duke meets Butler in the national title game Monday night. Here are the NCAA championship game odds from RJ Bell of Pregame.com.
Seeding History:
2010 is the 25th straight year that no team worse than a #6 seed makes the Championship game.
If Butler wins, it would be the first time in 22 years that the NCAA Basketball Champion would be WORSE than a #4 seed.
Las Vegas Action:
Duke opened as a 6.5-point favorite over Butler.
60% of bets (through Sunday) have backed Duke.
Due to this heavy backing, Duke is now a 7.5-point favorite.
The expected number of combined points in the game is 128.
Vegas projects (using the spread and total) a 68 – 60 Duke victory.
Butler really is David vs. Goliath:
Through the first five games of the tournament, Butler was favored 3 times (by a combined 8 points) and underdogs in two games (by a combined 10 points). Duke has been favored in all five tournament games (by a combined 46 points).
Props:
Odds of Duke winning by 21 or more points: 6 to 1
Odds of Butler winning by 21 or more points: 55 to 1
Final Four MVP (favorites - in order likelihood):
#1) Nolan Smith
#2) Jon Scheyer
#3) Gordon Hayward
#4) Kyle Singler
#5) Shelvin Mack
Projected points for Duke’s Big 3 (Scheyer, Smith, Singler): 55 combined points.