The college basketball regular season begins in five weeks. The first Big East basketball game comes on Dec. 10 when Providence plays at DePaul so why not look at the Big East basketball odds?
Big East teams were busy working the transfer portal. St. John’s had a top-five group of transfers according to the 247sports.com database. Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, Xavier, and UConn all have top 40 transfer classes as well with a strong group of transfers having a chance to make an impact in the Big East race. UConn comes in at No. 3 in ESPN’s Way Too Early Top 25 rankings. Creighton was ranked 15th with Marquette at No. 17. Let’s take a look at the current Big East championship odds from Vegas Insider.
Big East Basketball Odds Have Everybody Chasing UConn
UConn Remains The Top Dog In the Big East
Even after seeing four starters selected in the 2024 NBA Draft, the UConn Huskies will begin the 2024-25 college basketball season as the team to beat according to the Big East basketball odds. Alex Karaban is the only returning starter. He will be joined by transfers Aidan Mahaney and Tarris Reed Jr. A strong freshman class led by Liam McNeeley while Hassan Diarra is among the returnees to keep an eye on.
UConn is priced at +100 in the Big East basketball championship odds. There will be an early chance to get a look at the two-time defending national champions when the Huskies face Rhode Island in an exhibition game on Oct. 14. UConn is the last men’s Division I college basketball team to win back-to-back national titles since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 Florida Gators.
Dan Hurley, Billy Donovan both won consecutive national titles, then were courted by Kentucky and @nba.
Spoke w/Billy D on info he gave Hurley while he considered @lakers job, as well as challenges of a three-peat.
“He’s a lot closer than we were.”https://t.co/sqoNg2xRBK
— David Borges (@DaveBorges) September 20, 2024
Blue Jays and Golden Eagles Look To Close The Gap
Creighton and Marquette finished tied for second in the 2023-24 Big East basketball regular-season standings. Kam Jones and David Joplin both return for Marquette. Will that be enough for the Golden Eagles to make a run at the top spot in the Big East? Marquette is tied for the fifth-shortest odds at +1200 to win the Big East. Ryan Kalkbrenner leads the list of returning players for a Creighton team that is priced at +350 in the Big East basketball odds.
St. John’s and Xavier Are Rising In Big East Basketball Odds
Rick Pitino‘s first season as the head coach of the St. John’s Red Storm had mixed results. St. John’s threw a scare into UConn in the Big East tournament semifinals. However, the Red Storm finished just fifth in the regular-season standings. Former Seton Hall star Kadary Richmond made some news when he transferred to St. John’s. He is part of an impressive group of incoming transfers as St. John’s trails only UConn and Creighton at +525 in the Big East basketball title odds. Pitino and the Red Storm will be looking to find the player or players to lead them to Big East and NCAA Division I tournament runs.
Filling St. John’s leadership void is Rick Pitino’s ‘biggest problem’ https://t.co/8IoUTqlMNf pic.twitter.com/IOV6uS7GNq
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) September 18, 2024
Xavier is also expected to be a much-improved team. Despite finishing ahead of only Georgetown and DePaul in the 2023-24 Big East standings, the Musketeers (+800) are fourth in the odds of winning the Big East title.
Villanova (+1200), Providence (+1600), and Seton Hall (+1800) are other teams to keep an eye on. There is a bit of a gap after that with Butler next at +6000 in the championship odds.
Big East Basketball Players To Watch
The first thing that jumps out when looking at Vegas Insider’s Wooden Award odds is the absence of UConn’s Karaban. Karaban is showing up on preseason All-American lists but the Big East player with the shortest national player of the year odds is McNeeley, UConn’s highly-touted freshman. He is at +4000 to win the Wooden Award with just 10 players ahead of him. Creighton’s Kalkbrenner isn’t far behind at +5000. Mahaney and Creighton’s Pop Isaacs both come in at +6000. Marquette star Kam Jones is a little undervalued at +8000.
Villanova’s Jalen Brunson, now a star with the NBA’s New York Knicks, is the last Big East basketball player to win the Wooden Award. Brunson was honored after averaging 18.9 points and 4.6 assists for the Wildcats during the 2017-18 season.
