Odds UConn Will Win a Third Straight National Championship

Monday night in Arizona, the University of Connecticut Huskies won their second consecutive national championship by winning their 12th-straight NCAA Tournament game by at least 13 points. The final score over Purdue was 75-60, which also made UConn just the second team in history to win back-to-back titles by at least 15 points. The other was the 1967-1969 UCLA Bruins.

That UCLA team won three consecutive championship games by at least 15 points, and would go on to win a total of seven titles in a row. Overall, it was 10 championships in 12 years for UCLA. No one else has won as many as three straight. It should be noted that the field of competition was a lot smaller during the UCLA run, topping out at 25 teams versus this year’s 68 teams.

Two-time winners include Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), Kentucky, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Duke, Florida, and now Connecticut. The Huskies are just the third team to win consecutive titles since UCLA went on its incredible run, and they are now the latest team with a chance at a three-peat.

Favorites to Win 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball

Duke (+1000)

UConn (+1200)

Kansas (+1400)

North Carolina (+1400)

Houston (+1600)

Arizona (+1600)

Alabama (+1600)

Baylor (+1800)

Kentucky (+2000)

Connecticut has the hottest head coach in America, and one who has already said he is not interested in the vacant job at Kentucky. They are on top of the basketball world, not just as the two-time reigning champs, but as a team that makes winning in the postseason look easy. But it is Duke, and not UConn, that opens up as the favorites to win 12 months from now in San Antonio, Texas.

It is worth noting that after winning in 2023, UConn opened with the seventh-shortest odds to win it again in 2024. So this is a significant improvement.

And to be fair to the oddsmakers, UConn does have a lot of reloading to do. Big man center Donovan Clingan and freshman Stephon Castle are expected to be first-round picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. Tristen Newton, named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, is a fifth-year senior. Cam Spencer was the team’s leading scorer and he is also a fifth-year senior. But UConn went into this past season down three starters from its team the year before and still won a title. So Dan Hurley is not a man to doubt, and neither is this team.

But if any team is going to be ranked ahead of UConn, Duke does make sense. Kyle Filipowski is likely gone to the NBA Draft. But Jeremy Roach should be back, and recruits Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach will be added to the mix. 

Flagg is a 6-foot-8, five-star recruit from Maine who was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year two weeks ago. Maluach is a 7-foot-2, 17-year-old who plays for the South Sudanese national team, and he’s already been ranked as the third-best prospect for the 2025 NBA Draft by ESPN. With Maluach’s help, South Sudan, in its first trip to the FIBA World Cup, qualified for its first trip to the Olympics.

Duke will be loaded next year.

Kansas (+1400) will be in the mix, with Hunter Dickinson expected to return. R.J. Davis has yet to make a decision on his fifth year at North Carolina. But if the ACC Player of the Year does return, it will be a huge boost for them. Alabama, the team that knocked the Tar Heels out of this year’s NCAA Tournament, could have Mark Sears and Grant Nelson returning for their final year of eligibility.

Hurley Wants a Dynasty

Coach John Calipari is moving from Kentucky to Arkansas, leaving one of the most attractive positions in college basketball available. Alabama head coach Nate Oats said early on Monday that he isn’t interested in leaving the Crimson Tide, and that evening, UConn’s Hurley — after winning another national title — said he isn’t leaving the Huskies.

“Now you’re thinking in your brain, as I’m looking at the locker room, about the chance to do it three times, like a dynasty in modern times. I mean, that’s what I’m thinking about.”

He went on to joke that his wife is from New Jersey, and if he took her all the way to Kentucky, she might not go with him.