Let’s get right to it. I’ve been all over Gonzaga basketball for the past several seasons. Year in and year out, the Bulldogs dominate the West Coast Conference, play high quality basketball in their out-of-league schedule, and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

But they’ve failed to get over the hump.

This doesn’t matter for oddsmakers, though. For the third year in a row – Gonzaga is the betting favorite to win the NCAA Tournament according to BetOnline.ag. Here are their top ten:

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion

Gonzaga                                   +750

North Carolina                       +800

Kentucky                               +1000

Houston                                 +1100

Kansas                                    +1400

Baylor                                     +1400

Arkansas                                +1600

Creighton                              +1800

Duke                                       +1800

UCLA                                     +1800

Forward Drew Timme is returning to Gonzaga for his senior season and will look to lead the Bulldogs to the promised land. The 2x Second-Team All American and 2022 WCC Player of the Year is starved for another chance at a title.

Junior Julian Strawther will also return to the team in 2022. The 6’7″ guard started 31 games for the Zags last year and scored 11.8 points per game. They’ll lean on him to continue improving in his third year in Spokane.

Malachi Smith is a massive addition to the Gonzaga team. A transfer guard from UT-Chattanooga, Smith led the Mocs to the NCAA Tournament in 2021-22 and was the Mid-Major player of the year. The addition of Smith is the reason why I will again be taking the Bulldogs to win the NCAA Title in 2022-23.

My pick: Gonzaga +750

Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @CLNSMedia for the latest up-to-date Boston sports news!

Also be sure to check out our new sports betting Twitter account @CLNSBetting for all the latest odds and content from CLNS Media.

Use code CLNS50 for 50% off your first deposit at Betonline.ag.

The post Can Gonzaga Finally Win an NCAA Championship in 2022-23? appeared first on CLNS Media.

The field is truly wide open, and you can bet on who will win it all using BetOnline.ag. Here’s a list of their top ten to win the NCAA Tournament:

NCAA Tourney Odds to Win

Gonzaga               +400

Kentucky              +650

Arizona                  +775

Duke                      +900

Kansas                 +1200

Baylor                  +1200

Purdue                 +1200

Auburn                +1200

Villanova             +1800

Texas Tech          +2200

This past Saturday, the top SIX teams in the country lost. Like I said – wide open.

A historic day in college basketball

No. 1 Gonzaga LOST
No. 2 Arizona LOST
No. 3 Auburn LOST
No. 4 Purdue LOST
No. 5 Kansas LOST
No. 6 Kentucky LOST

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 27, 2022

A majority of the top 25 are your common blue blood power houses, but others (Saint Mary’s, Murray State, Arkansas) are a surprise.

With that being said, no one has really separated themselves as the elite talent in the field, and it may be a crapshoot right up until the end, Here are my top five favorite bets to tournament:

5. Providence (+6600)

Call me crazy, but Ed Cooley has something going down in Providence. They are the ninth ranked team in the country, and are coming off of a dominant home win against the Creighton Jays. Center Nate Watson has been an outstanding interior player for Providence, and is shooting 65% from the field in the team’s last four games.

They head to Villanova on Tuesday night to take on the 11th ranked Wildcats – a true test to see if Providence is for real in 2022. If they can get some momentum going heading into the Big East tournament, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the 24-3 Friars playing basketball into April.

4. Baylor (+1200)

Baylor shocked the world last season by beating down on the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs in the NCAA tournament final, and have kept that domination going into this season. The Bears are 24-5 and are currently the third ranked team in the country.

As they proved last year, they can compete with anybody. If they get a good pull in the tournament, Baylor can easily make the Final Four again and set themselves up to repeat as National Champions.

3. Kentucky (+650)

Kentucky has actually been a bit of a surprise this season. Although they currently have the second highest odds at +650 to win the tournament, this wasn’t always the case for John Calipari’s Wildcats. They opened the year at +1400, and junior forward Oscar Tshiebwe, who is the heavy favorite to win this season’s Wooden Award (-400 according to BetOnline.ag), wasn’t even on their board when the season began.

Tshiebwe has been the anchor for the Wildcats, averaging 16.9 points per game and 15.3 rebounds per game this season. He is the key to a successful Kentucky tournament run.

2. Duke (+900)

I’m always down on Duke when it comes to NCAA tournament time. They are constantly underperforming (according to their standards), and haven’t been to a Final Four since 2015.

That being said, this is Coach K’s last season in Durham, and he’s going to do everything in his power to go out on a high note. He has a program great in forward Paolo Banchero leading the way for his Blue Devils, and frankly it’ll be a bust if this team isn’t playing in the Final Four.

1. Gonzaga (+400)

Gonzaga will forever be dominant under Mark Few – but can they finally get the championship monkey off of their back in 2022? Projected number one overall pick Chet Holmgren has been a godsend for the Bulldogs, and senior Drew Timme continues to dominate down low.

Playing in the WCC may be this team’s only true downfall, and it’s something that they need to get over. They have the talent to play against the elite in college basketball, and I think this is the year they finally get their ring.

I am sitting on a Gonzaga future at +550, so here’s to hoping this is actually their year.

Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @CLNSMedia for the latest up-to-date Boston sports news!

Also be sure to check out our new sports betting Twitter account @CLNSBetting for all the latest odds and content from CLNS Media.

Use code CLNS50 for 50% off your first deposit at Betonline.ag.

The post Let the Madness Begin – My Top Five Picks to Win the NCAA Tournament appeared first on CLNS Media.

Custer became the first rookie to win at Kentucky since the Cup Series began racing there in 2011.

Custer, who has struggled adapting to the competition of the Cup Series so far this season, said he was not expecting to get the victory at a track where drivers consistently struggle to pass.

“We were so good all day,” Custer said.  “Our car was so good; obviously it wasn’t the easiest track to pass on so we were kind of stuck back there.  I didn’t think we were coming here coming to win.”

After two wild restarts late in the race, Custer took the leaders four-wide coming to the white flag to take the lead.  While Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick battled on the inside, Matt DiBenedetto gave Custer a push that sent the rookie to victory lane.

With the victory, Custer became the first rookie to win in the Cup Series since Chris Buescher went to victory lane in 2016 at Pocono.

Custer said he and his team have been focused on getting acclimated to the Cup Series competition.

“It definitely wasn’t the start to the year that I wanted,” Custer said.  “We were definitely off at some places, but this was…an unbelievable car.  We put it all together and I just can’t thank everybody enough.”

Martin Truex Jr. finished second on Sunday after starting at the back of the field for failing pre-race inspection twice.

Truex found himself on the losing end of two calls by NASCAR late in the race, when the cautions came out while he was side-by-side with the leader.

Truex said he had to shift his focus after losing out on those two calls with the laps winding down.

“At the end there, just a bit unlucky,” Truex said.  “That’s just kind of how these things go sometimes.”

“Just an unbelievable racecar.  Everybody back at Joe Gibbs Racing just went to work this week trying to get back to what we used to do here.  Proud of the effort; feel like we’re back in the game now.”

Unofficial results:

1. Cole Custer
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Matt DiBenedetto
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Kurt Busch
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Christopher Bell
8. Aric Almirola
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Tyler Reddick
11. William Byron
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Austin Dillon
14. Clint Bowyer
15. Joey Logano
16. Ty Dillon
17. Ryan Newman
18. Jimmie Johnson
19. Alex Bowman
20. Chris Buescher
21. Kyle Busch
22. Erik Jones
23. Chase Elliott
24. Michael McDowell
25. Matt Kenseth
26. Daniel Suarez
27. Bubba Wallace
28. Corey LaJoie
29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
30. JJ Yeley
31. Brennan Poole
32. Josh Bilicki
33. Garrett Smithley
34. Joey Gase
35. Quin Houff
36. John Hunter Nemechek
37. Timmy Hill
38. Ryan Preece

The post Custer Wins Following Thrilling Kentucky Finish appeared first on CLNS Media.

This week on the Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley and former Wildcat Sean Woods- two players and current head coaches – talked about the game.

Woods played among the “unforgettables” who stayed withe the Wildcats for four years despite two postseasons lost to NCAA sanctions. In their return, only Coach K’s Blue Devils stood in their way of the Final Four.

[arve url=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/13673534/height/100/theme/custom/thumbnail/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/87A93A/” /]

Hurley remembered never being able to build a big enough lead. Woods and he had never talked about the game at length until now. Despite the devastating ending, Grant Hill’s full court bullet pass to Christian Laettner for the game-winner, Woods defended his coach.

“We never questioned Coach Pitino. To this day I still don’t question it. Because the chances of one guy catching a length-of-the-court pass over two defenders is not very great, but it happened on this night.”

Woods added praise for Laettner, who he needed to constantly berate and thought was a hard opponent to guard than Shaquille O’Neal. Woods’ trash talk bounced right off Laettner, which made it feel harder to guard him than a young Shaq, who was playing at LSU at the time.

“We didn’t want to foul,” Woods said of The Shot. “It was probably the easiest shot (Christian) had taken all night.”

Rick Pitino laid the groundwork at Kentucky, during which Coach Cal was beginning his work at UMass toward major college coaching after he took them to the Final Four later in the decade. Kentucky wasn’t on his radar before 1992, Woods said. That game made it Cal’s dream job.

“Duke became a juggernaut from a history standpoint and a program standpoint. I think it was fate,” he said. “It was fate for us, would we have been any more famous if we had won the national championship? … But the Kentucky program of today started March. 28, 1992.”

Cal joined Kentucky in 2009 coaching future NBA stars from John Wall and Demarcus Cousins to Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns. Kentucky doesn’t always win it all, but since the 1990s, they’ve gotten the best talent. Woods and company had to grit through the down years to reach the top.

Duke’s hosted the likes of Jayson Tatum, Brandon Ingram, Marvin Bagley and Jabari Parker in recent seasons. Christian Laettner became synonymous with the program and the vitriol it received nationally.

Hurley still remembers Woods’ shot that forced Laettner’s game-winner and the energy that he forced him to play with all night. “Hell of a shot.”

Later in the show, Hurley discussed the dynamic he and Laettner shared as teammates — Jeff trying to get their tensest moment out of them.

The post Bobby Hurley & Sean Woods Relive 1992 Duke Kentucky Game on Ryan & Goodman Podcast appeared first on CLNS Media.

This week on the Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley and former Wildcat Sean Woods- two players and current head coaches – talked about the game.

Woods played among the “unforgettables” who stayed withe the Wildcats for four years despite two postseasons lost to NCAA sanctions. In their return, only Coach K’s Blue Devils stood in their way of the Final Four.

[arve url=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/13673534/height/100/theme/custom/thumbnail/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/87A93A/” /]

Hurley remembered never being able to build a big enough lead. Woods and he had never talked about the game at length until now. Despite the devastating ending, Grant Hill’s full court bullet pass to Christian Laettner for the game-winner, Woods defended his coach.

“We never questioned Coach Pitino. To this day I still don’t question it. Because the chances of one guy catching a length-of-the-court pass over two defenders is not very great, but it happened on this night.”

Woods added praise for Laettner, who he needed to constantly berate and thought was a hard opponent to guard than Shaquille O’Neal. Woods’ trash talk bounced right off Laettner, which made it feel harder to guard him than a young Shaq, who was playing at LSU at the time.

“We didn’t want to foul,” Woods said of The Shot. “It was probably the easiest shot (Christian) had taken all night.”

Rick Pitino laid the groundwork at Kentucky, during which Coach Cal was beginning his work at UMass toward major college coaching after he took them to the Final Four later in the decade. Kentucky wasn’t on his radar before 1992, Woods said. That game made it Cal’s dream job.

“Duke became a juggernaut from a history standpoint and a program standpoint. I think it was fate,” he said. “It was fate for us, would we have been any more famous if we had won the national championship? … But the Kentucky program of today started March. 28, 1992.”

Cal joined Kentucky in 2009 coaching future NBA stars from John Wall and Demarcus Cousins to Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns. Kentucky doesn’t always win it all, but since the 1990s, they’ve gotten the best talent. Woods and company had to grit through the down years to reach the top.

Duke’s hosted the likes of Jayson Tatum, Brandon Ingram, Marvin Bagley and Jabari Parker in recent seasons. Christian Laettner became synonymous with the program and the vitriol it received nationally.

Hurley still remembers Woods’ shot that forced Laettner’s game-winner and the energy that he forced him to play with all night. “Hell of a shot.”

Later in the show, Hurley discussed the dynamic he and Laettner shared as teammates — Jeff trying to get their tensest moment out of them.

The post Bobby Hurley & Sean Woods Relive 1992 Duke Kentucky Game on Ryan & Goodman Podcast appeared first on CLNS Media.