NCAA Basketball: Top 10 way-too-early best bets to win 2024 national title

3. Purdue Boilermakers – +1600

I understand that it’s a hard sell to bet on Purdue to win the national championship after the embarrassing loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. But if history repeats itself, it could be a good thing. The only other program to suffer a similar fate was Virginia, who after losing to UMBC the year prior, went on the win the national title the following season.

And what the Boilermakers have going for them is that they’re set to return the reigning NCAA Basketball Player of the Year, Zach Edey. He averaged 22.3 ppg and 12.9 rpg on a team that went from preseason unranked to No. 1 for most of the season. They overachieved overall but weren’t really supposed to compete for a national title since the team’s next two best players were freshmen.

Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer had their flaws but overall, looked like true building blocks that you can win with. Another year of development should make them much more ready to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. The team also landed Lance Jones, a guard transfer from Southern Illinois that averaged 13.8 ppg this past season and was named to two all-defensive teams in the Missouri Valley Conference.

This is a team that’s only going to get better and don’t be surprised if they add another athlete in the frontcourt that can pair even better with Edey. Talent wins in the NCAA Tournament and Purdue is going to have the best player next season. And now he has an experienced supporting cast that should be more poised too.