NCAA Basketball: Top 5 future bets (long shots) to win 2020 championship

#5 Illinois Fighting Illini

100/1 (NCAA Basketball 2019-2020 top 5 future bets)

It has been since the 2012-2013 season that the Illini made the Big Dance, and the ‘04-05 season since they were a true contender, led by the likes of Dee Brown, Luther Head, and Deron Williams. Now we flash forward to the present, as this Illinois team has some promising talent on the roster and looks to make some noise this season.

This team may not be the same caliber of the ‘04 team that fell short in the championship against North Carolina, but the Illini have plenty of young talent returning from last year. That talent is led by 6-foot-5-inch guard Ayo Dosunmu, who put up a stat line of 13.8 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 3.3 APG in his freshman season. Dosunmu will be a household name this upcoming season and is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA draft (via 247sports). Another talented recruit is 7-footer Kofi Cockburn, who is from Jamaica and should get significant playing time this year.

Giorgi Bezhanishvili, the 6-foot-9-inch big man, will be a key piece returning for Illinois and will look to build off of last year.  Note that Aaron Jordan did graduate and this is the only true piece not returning from last year’s squad. Head coach Brad Underwood will have no excuses to underperform this year, as he holds a record of 26-39 entering his third season, and went 12-21 last year. I won’t say Underwood is on the hot seat this year, but his seat is certainly getting warmer out there in Champaign.

Back to the odds at hand, 100/1 is a gift from a value perspective, as the Illini will look to build off of some success in the second half of last season. The Illini beat #13 Maryland on the road, #8 Michigan State at home, and won a triple-overtime affair in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against Northwestern. I don’t necessarily think the market is overlooking the Illini at 100/1 considering the previous seasons of the program with Underwood, but it may be underestimating it if this team can actually put the pieces together.

https://twitter.com/NXT1S/status/1167089861825896448?s=20

Illinois will have one of the best players in all of college basketball with Dosunmu, and I predict they will be a tournament team this season. I project the Illini to end up as an at-large team in the tournament, somewhere around a nine or ten seed. This scenario would have their odds somewhere drop to somewhere around 50/1, and for that, this is an excellent value bet. The ceiling is high for this Illini team, and Underwood and the boys from Champaign will surprise some folks this season.