Tag: Louisville Cardinals

2025 NCAA basketball championship odds: Who is favored? Will UConn 3-peat?

Looking at the 2025 NCAA basketball championship odds as the 2023-24 season just wrapped up.

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It’s never too soon to think about next season.

While the UConn Huskies were finishing off the Purdue Boilermakers Monday in Glendale, Ariz, other programs — and players — have already set their focus on what it will take to get to the 2025 National Championship Game in San Antonio’s Alamodome next April 7.

Numerous players have entered the transfer portal, from FAU G Johnell Davis to Arizona C Oumar Ballo. Davis reportedly will test the waters and enter the NBA Draft.

Florida G Walter Clayton Jr., LSU G Jalen Cook and even USC G Bronny James are among a group who have declared or reportedly will declare for the upcoming draft.

Coaches are on the move, too. Sources have John Calipari leaving Kentucky for SEC rival Arkansas. He would replace Eric Musselman, who is headed to USC … which lost Andy Enfield to SMU.

So, who will win the championship next season?

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2025 NCAA basketball championship odds

Provided by FanDuel Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Monday, April 8, at 11:56 p.m. ET.

THE FAVORITES

  • Duke Blue Devils +1100 (bet $100 to win $1,100)
  • Kansas Jayhawks +1200
  • Alabama Crimson Tide +1500
  • Houston Cougars +1500
  • North Carolina Tar Heels +1500
  • UConn Huskies +1800

THE CONTENDERS

  • Arizona Wildcats +2000
  • Kentucky Wildcats +2000
  • Baylor Bears +3000
  • Gonzaga Bulldogs +3000
  • Purdue Boilermakers +3000
  • Tennessee Volunteers +3600
  • Texas Longhorns +3600

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YOU NEVER KNOW

  • Arkansas Razorbacks +4000
  • Auburn Tigers +4000
  • BYU Cougars +4000
  • Illinois Fighting Illini +4000
  • Iowa State Cyclones +4000
  • Creighton Bluejays +4500
  • Marquette Golden Eagles +4500

NOTEWORTHY ???

  • Michigan Wolverines +5000
  • Miami Hurricanes +5000
  • Florida Gators +5500
  • Michigan State Spartans +5500
  • Ohio State Buckeyes +5500
  • St. John’s Red Storm +5500
  • UCLA Bruins +5500
  • Villanova Wildcats +5500
  • Wisconsin Badgers +5500

+6000

San Diego State Aztecs | USC Trojans

+8000

Indiana Hoosiers | Kansas State Wildcats

Louisville Cardinals | Virginia Cavaliers

Washington Huskies

+10000

Iowa Hawkeyes |  Oklahoma Sooners

Oregon Ducks |  Syracuse Orange

+15000

Colorado Buffaloes | NC State Wolfpack

Northwestern Wildcats | Notre Dame Fighting Irish

+25000

Arizona State Sun Devils

+30000

FAU Owls | Stanford Cardinal

Stream select live college basketball games and full replays: Get ESPN+

LONGEST SHOTS (+50000 each)

McNeese Cowboys |  Oakland Golden Grizzlies

Oregon State Beavers | UC Irvine Anteaters

Vermont Catamounts | Yale Bulldogs

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Chris Mack returns to college basketball, replaces Pat Kelsey at Charleston

College of Charleston replaced Pat Kelsey with former Louisville and Xavier coach Chris Mack, a proven winner in college basketball.

Two years and three months after getting fired by Louisville, veteran college basketball coach Chris Mack is back after accepting the open position at Charleston vacated by Pat Kelsey – who is now at Louisville after replacing Kenny Payne.

Mack was dismissed by Louisville in January of 2022. The program made Payne the next head coach in a move that could not have gone more poorly –  as the program tanked over the last two seasons under Payne, and now will hope Kelsey can get them out of the cellar in the ACC.

For Charleston, Mack comes in hoping to keep this program relevant after Kelsey’s excellent tenure, especially as the program remains in consideration to join the Atlantic 10 as a replacement for UMass.

Mack has experience in the A-10, leading Xavier to a pair of regular season titles before they moved to the Big East, where he also took them to a title.

All told, Mack has reached the NCAA Tournament in nine of his ten seasons as a head coach, not including 2019-20 when he had Louisville at one point ranked No. 1 in the country before the tournament was cancelled due to COVID.

Mack has had success at every stop in his career, with an overall record of 278-133. This hire sends the message that Charleston has no intention of fading back to obscurity following Kelsey’s departure, and could keep them relevant regardless of whether they take the leap to the A-10.

Report: Louisville considering Richard Pitino as next basketball coach

The Louisville Cardinals are considering Rick Pitino’s son Richard as their next head coach after a successful season at New Mexico.

The Louisville Cardinals have an opportunity to bring a very familiar face back to campus in Richard Pitino, the current New Mexico head coach and son of former Cardinals and current St. John’s coach Rick Pitino.

Reports indicate Pitino is the top candidate to become the head coach at Louisville, and that athletic director Josh Heird has been in contact with Richard “several times over the past few days.”

Pitino led the Lobos to a 26-10 record and their first Mountain West tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014 this past season, his third at New Mexico.

Pitino served as an assistant coach at Louisville from 2007-2009 under his father Rick, before serving as an assistant at Florida under Billy Donovan.

He was back at Louisville in 2011-12 during the team’s Final Four run, and then spent one year as the head coach at Florida International before taking over at Minnesota in 2013 and leading the Golden Gophers to the NIT championship in his first year and two NCAA Tournament appearances before departing in 2021.

Hiring the son of the coach who led you to a national title may sound good on paper, but the elder Pitino’s transgressions at Louisville are well documented and bringing the family back into the mix is certainly a unique situation.

However, Louisville struck out on top targets Scott Drew and Dusty May, and Pitino is a reasonable candidate based on his head coaching experience, recent success, and familiarity with the program.

Oakland coach Greg Kampe claims school sold $8K in t-shirts to Louisville fans after upsetting Kentucky

It’s not petty, it’s sports.

The University of Louisville’s basketball teams are having a rough go of it.

On the men’s side, the school just fired head coach Kenny Payne after two truly ugly seasons (12-52), while the sixth-seeded women’s team suffered a stunning upset to Middle Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.

So you can understand the desire of Cardinals fans to hold onto any good feelings at the moment and on Thursday that arrived in the form of Oakland and Jack Gohlke.

The No. 14 Golden Grizzlies handed No. 3 Kentucky a massive upset in the first round that has fans in Lexington calling for head coach John Calipari’s job.

In Louisville, they’re calling for expedited delivery of something else: T-shirts.

According to Oakland coach Greg Kampe, the school sold $8,000 worth of merch to fans with Louisville zip codes.

The Golden Grizzlies don’t seem to mind Cards fans joining the bandwagon at all. The Louisville Courier-Journal reached out to Oakland vice president Mike Westfall, who thanked UofL fans for their support.

“What a game last night against your arch nemesis! I serve as a vice president for Oakland University. I wanted to share my appreciation to your fantastic fans. We have been getting merchandise orders and donations from them since the game. The donations have all had a similar theme, thanking us for beating the University of Kentucky. March madness is the best, as are your basketball fans! We are preparing to send a thank you out to the U of L fans on our socials.”

That right there is college sports at it’s finest. Hold onto this feeling, Louisville fans. It may be a while before it becomes a regular occurrence again.

Vikings 2024 NFL draft scouting report: Louisville RB Isaac Guerendo

Louisville RB Isaac Guerendo tested off the charts at the NFL Scouting Combine. Could the Vikings select him in the 2024 NFL Draft?

Welcome to SKOL Search!

This series will be your guide to the 2024 draft class. From scouting reports to mock drafts and exploring different scenarios, we will be covering the NFL draft and the future of the Minnesota Vikings from all angles.

The focus of the draft class in this space will be on the Vikings’ major needs at quarterback, running back, defensive line and edge rusher. We will also focus on wide receiver since it’s a loaded class and an increased chance to get a Stefon Diggs-type steal in the later rounds.

The Vikings are slated to have 9 picks going into the NFL draft and they need to make the most out of them.

Former Wisconsin running back had a standout NFL combine performance

Former Wisconsin RB Isaac Guerendo had an amazing day Saturday

Former Wisconsin running back Isaac Guerendo had X ablaze Saturday afternon with his NFL combine performance.

The former Badger and Louisville Cardinal ran an impressive 4.33-second 40-yard dash, then added a 41.5-inch vertical jump and 10’9″ broad jump — first, first and second among running backs respectively.

Related: Social media reacts to former Wisconsin RB Braelon Allen’s NFL combine performance

Guerendo registered 99 carries for 582 rushing yards and six touchdowns during his four-year Wisconsin career. He excelled in his one year at Louisville, adding 132 carries for 810 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The running back is currently projected to go in the 4th or 5th round of the upcoming NFL draft. His combine performance and 9.99 Raw Athletic Score may raise that projection a few rounds.

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Men’s Basketball: Duke’s ACC opponents for 2024 are set

The ACC released its conference opponent schedule for 2024-25 on Thursday evening. See who Duke will host and travel to here.

The Duke Blue Devils have officially entered the month of March, which means things will get serious for them on the basketball court. The Blue Devils have just three regular-season games remaining before they play in the ACC Tournament and, after that, the NCAA Tournament for a chance to win the program’s sixth national title.

Even while that takes place, there’s an eye on next year’s team as the Blue Devils discover who their conference opponents will be for the 2024-25 season.

Next year is a big year for the ACC as it welcomes three new teams to the conference: SMU, Stanford, and California.

The expansion means some tweaks to the normal ACC schedule, however, and the conference revealed each team’s ACC foes for the 2024-25 season on Thursday.

Duke’s 20-game schedule for 2024-25 features two two-game series (home and away) versus its two current partners, North Carolina and Wake Forest. The Blue Devils are 1-2 currently this year against both teams. They also have a home-and-away series with the Miami Hurricanes for next season.

Duke will host California at Cameron Indoor for the first time. The last time the schools played was in 2019 when Duke blew Cal out by 35 points in an 87-52 win in the 2K Empire Classic.

Florida State, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Stanford, and Virginia Tech will all come to Cameron next year. Duke will travel for road games at Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, SMU, Syracuse, and Virginia next season.

Duke is 3-1 all-time against SMU in basketball. The Blue Devils’ road trip to SMU is only their second all-time, having played in Dallas on Dec. 8, 1977 – a game which Duke won by 24 points 91-67.

The ACC recently announced that, with the conference expanding to 18 members, only the top 15 teams in the conference will participate in the ACC Tournament next year, which is set to be played March 11-15 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The full schedule will be announced early this fall, equipped with specific game dates, times, and networks.

Duke loses highly competitive 83-79 game on the road to Wake Forest

Duke loses a closely contested game against Wake Forest 83-79.

No. 8 Duke has been playing its best basketball of the season of late, and coming into their Saturday tilt with Wake Forest, they had won five straight basketball games.

Saturday saw them unable to push that win streak to six, as the Blue Devils fell 83-79 in Winston-Salem after a hotly contested game.

These two ACC foes met in Durham less than a month ago, with Duke winning 77-69. Wake came out on top in their rematch after shooting 60% from the field for the entire game.

The first half was a largely back-in-forth affair, with the Blue Devils pushing out to an early 15-9 lead behind 3-pointers from Tyrese Proctor, Caleb Foster, and Jared McCain. Wake responded, closing the gap as the teams hit the under-eight media timeout with Duke holding a 25-22 lead.

For the remainder of the first half, the game remained at most a three- to four-point affair. Duke ended the half with a 38-36 lead after a cheap foul on Jaylen Blakes gave Cameron Hildreth two free throws with less than a second left.

Proctor and Foster chipped in eight points each over the opening 20 minutes, while Kyle Filipowski led the way for Duke with 10 points and five rebounds. Gonzaga transfer Hunter Sallis was locked in during the first half en route to 14 points and five boards for Wake Forest.

The second half is when things turned up a notch.

Duke and Wake exchanged run after run and upped their percentage from three above 50% after shooting just 4/12 from distance in the first half.

Duke struggled to stop Wake in the second half, but thanks to tough shotmaking of their own, they remained in the game to the end.

Three turnovers in the final two minutes ultimately undid Duke’s chances of coming out on top despite weathering an incredible display of shooting from Hunter Sallis, who finished with 29 points on 5/6 shooting from deep.

Jeremy Roach added 16 points of his own, while Filipowski led the Blue Devils in scoring with 17 points.

As the game concluded, Kyle Filipowski was hobbled and helped off the court as Wake students and fans stormed the court and appeared to be somewhat responsible for injuring him in what is sure to be a hot topic over the next few days.

Filipowski said the problem was with his knee after the game.

For Duke, they’ll lace their sneakers back up and retake the court at home on Wednesday night against Lousiville. Wake Forest will travel to South Bend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Every ACC football team’s ESPN preseason SP+ ranking

The ACC has some strong teams heading into the 2024 season, according to ESPN’s SP+.

The 2024 college football season is months away, but we all know that football remains on the mind throughout the offseason. 

Early rankings have been released all over the place, with ESPN’s Bill Connelly recently releasing the preseason ESPN SP+ rankings ($$$) for the 2024 season. These SP+ rankings consider multiple key factors regarding a football team, including returning production, recent recruiting, and recent history. A strong model; here is a bit more of what Connelly had to say about the rankings. 

“It’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking. Along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.”

Straightforward and to the point, these are power rankings based on what we know right now. So, how do Clemson and the rest of the ACC stack up in the first SP+ rankings for 2024? Check it out below.

Updated 2/16

Vikings 2024 NFL draft scouting report: Florida State QB Jordan Travis

Florida State QB Jordan Travis had a great season before breaking his ankle in November. How much did that impact his NFL Draft stock?

Welcome to SKOL Search!

This series will be your guide to the 2024 draft class. From scouting reports to mock drafts and exploring different scenarios, we will be covering the NFL draft and the future of the Minnesota Vikings from all angles.

The focus of the draft class in this space will be on the Vikings’ major needs at quarterback, running back, defensive line and edge rusher. We will also focus on wide receiver since it’s a loaded class and an increased chance to get a Stefon Diggs-type steal in the later rounds.

The Vikings are slated to have 9 picks going into the NFL draft and they need to make the most out of them.