Looking at conference title, player award odds for Michigan basketball

College basketball is almost here, and that means one of the favorite sports for gamblers to bet on will soon have games happening pretty much every day from next week until April.

While there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Michigan Wolverines with all the new freshman, transfers and young players asked to step into a bigger role, oddsmakers think highly of the Wolverines and have placed preseason odds accordingly.

Here are the preseason odds for the Wolverines, along with where I think you should be placing your money.

Odds to win the Big Ten (via DraftKings Sportsbook)

Indiana is the preseason favorite to win the conference at +350, but Michigan isn’t far behind at +450.

Those odds seem fair for Michigan. It will have one of the top players in the Big Ten in Hunter Dickinson, but a lot of young players will be asked to play key roles for this team, creating a sense of uncertainty.

I wouldn’t mind betting on the Wolverines, considering their talent gives them high upside and Juwan Howard has proven he can coach this team towards the top of the conference.

Additionally, looking at some long shots to win the Big Ten, the only one I really like is Rutgers at +3000. While it will be tough to replace Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr., the Scarlet Knights still have a great coach in Steve Pikiell, a rising big man who can defend the dominant post players in the conference in Clifford Omoruyi, and an experienced backcourt with Paul Mulcahy and defensive stalwart Caleb McConnell.

Postseason

Beyond winning the Big Ten, Michigan is a bit more of a longshot to make a postseason run. At +3500, the Wolverines have the eighth-best odds to win it all, with 13 teams ahead of them.

Understandably, Michigan and Indiana are tied at +3500 to win the National Championship, the best odds of any team in the Big Ten. With all four teams leading the way at +900, oddsmakers expect Gonzaga, Kentucky, Houston and North Carolina to be favorites.

Michigan and Indiana are also tied at +1000 to make the Final Four, behind only 13 teams. I like those odds, especially if Jaelin Llewellyn and Jett Howard can both be reliable scoring options by mid-March.

Wooden Award

It doesn’t appear that Big Ten Player of the Year odds have been released, but in terms of the national award, Dickinson leads all conference players with +1800 odds to win the John Wooden Award, tied with Kansas’ Jalen Wilson for seventh-best odds.

The players better than Dickinson are Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Armando Bacot (UNC), Caleb Love (UNC), Marcus Sasser (Houston) and Jaime Jacquez Jr. (UCLA).

Dickinson has the best Wooden Award odds out of everyone in the Big Ten. Players behind him odds-wise include Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis (+2000), Illinois Terrance Shannon (+2500), Zach Edey (+3500) and Kris Murray (+6000). A former Michigan big is also on the preseason odds chart, with Florida’s Colin Castleton’s Wooden Awards sitting at +8000.

Women’s Basketball National Championship

The only preseason odds listed on DraftKings for women’s college basketball are the National Title odds, and in that category, Michigan is quite the dark horse at +20000. Five Big Ten teams have higher odds than the Wolverines, including Iowa (+700, third-best odds in country), Indiana (+4000), Ohio State (+5000), Maryland (+6000) and Nebraska (+8000).