NCAAW Basketball Odds: Defending Champs Are Still the Team to Beat
Balanced Offenses Lead Powerhouse South Carolina and Stanford Squads
Can Former Superpowers UConn and Tennessee Derail South Carolina’s Championship Reign?
Non-conference play is starting to wind down with the top women’s basketball national championship contenders preparing to dive headlong into conference play later this month.
There have been plenty of matchups between ranked teams and that starts to make the NCAAW basketball odds shift along with the pecking order in the women’s basketball universe.
The college basketball odds have defending champion South Carolina as the team to beat once again with fellow 2022 Final Four teams Stanford and UConn among the top contenders.
South Carolina is trying to join Southern California, Tennessee and UConn as the only women’s Division I teams to win back-to-back national titles since the inaugural NCAA tournament was held in 1982.
South Carolina received all 29 first-place votes in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, followed by Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame.
Let’s take a look at the teams expected to vie for the 2023 championship.
South Carolina Still The One
The top-ranked Gamecocks are favored to repeat as national championships thanks to a veteran nucleus led by reigning national player of the year Aliyah Boston.
Boston’s numbers have dropped from 16.8 points and 12.5 rebounds as a junior to 12.9 points and 9.6 rebounds this season even though she is shooting a career-high 63.9% from the field.
Kamilla Cardoso had a quiet season in 2021-22 after transferring from Syracuse. The 6-foot-7 Brazil native is putting up 10.9 points and 7.6 rebounds in just 17.7 minutes per game and forward Bree Hall is another player with a more significant role this season.
South Carolina was tested in ranked matchups against Stanford and UCLA. The Gamecocks aren’t scheduled to meet a ranked team for another month and a half.
Stanford Hanging Around
Stanford could easily be the top-ranked team in the country. The Cardinal led South Carolina by 10 points in the fourth quarter before falling in overtime.
Just like South Carolina, the Gamecocks rely on a balanced offense with proven point producers Hannah Jump,
Cameron Brink and Haley Jones are being supported by sophomores Kiki Iriafen and Elena Bosgana as well as highly touted freshman Lauren Betts. Stanford (10-10 is priced at +325 to win the national title according to the NCAAB odds.
Since losing to South Carolina, Stanford has won by 24, 37, 29, 13 and 21 points. However, just one of those contests came against ranked teams.
The next couple of games will be interesting with Stanford facing a talented but struggling Tennessee squad and a nationally ranked Creighton team.
UConn is Always a Contender
It is interesting that UConn is priced at +650 in the national title odds while a Notre Dame team that just ran the Huskies off the court comes in at +2200 per the NCAA basketball odds.
UConn (6-1) has three more non-conference games before returning to Big East play.
Carla Berube, a key member of UConn’s 1995 national championship team, brings her Princeton team to Connecticut. That will be followed by a trip to No. 20 Maryland for the Huskies and then a game at nearby Mohegan Sun Arena against Florida State.
The Huskies missed injured All-American Paige Bueckers in the Notre Dame loss. However, 6-foot-5 Dorka Juhasz could be returning to the lineup soon after being injured in the second game of the season.
Hawkeye State Rivals Could be Threat
Two of the nation’s best players suit up for teams from the state of Iowa.
Caitlin Clark is the nation’s leading scorer as she continues to put up some of the best college basketball stats and is a major reason why Iowa (+1000) is fourth in the odds to win the national title according to the NCAAW basketball odds.
Iowa State, led by 2,500-point scorer Ashley Joens, isn’t far behind at +1500.
The teams will be meeting on Wednesday and that should be a fun one.
SEC rival LSU comes in at +2000. Texas fell out of the rankings after dropping four out of six games. However, the Longhorns are listed at +1800 in the national title odds.
Tennessee, despite a 4-5 record, is also priced at +1500 in the national title odds while SEC rival LSU comes in at +2000. Texas fell out of the rankings after dropping four out of six games. However, the Longhorns are listed at +1800 in the national title odds.
Louisville, coming off a run to the Final Four, is just 5-4 and is 15th in the odds to win it all.
Louisiana State (+2000), Ohio State (+2500), Indiana (+2800) and North Carolina State (+2800) are other teams to keep an eye on.
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