The Kentucky Wildcats were struggled mightily earlier in the season, leaving many college basketball fans left wondering about their chances to make the NCAA Tournament, while analysts questioned the future of head coach John Calipari. But the Wildcats put all that noise to bed by notching their biggest win of the season: an upset over the No. 10 ranked Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday afternoon. The Kentucky college basketball championship odds rose shortly after the triumph.
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Update College Basketball Championship Odds: Is Kentucky in the Discussion?
Per DraftKings:
The Wildcats were able to defeat the Volunteers rather comfortably, 66-54, on their home court. Kentucky used a balanced scoring attack, with Oscar Tshiebwe and Cason Wallace leading the way with 16 points apiece. They ended a two game losing streak earlier in the week with a gutsy road win over Mississippi State.
"I said all along, we're going to break through. We had two losses I'd like to have back. ... Play the games, let's see where we are. Let's get healthy, let's keep getting better., Calipari told reporters on Saturday.
The Kentucky win moves them to 18-9 on the season (9-5 in the SEC). They should have done enough since the early part of the season to put any doubt that they would miss out on the March Madness tournament behind them, and now they will focus how to continue improving so that they can stay hot entering the final stretch of the regular season.
Another thing going in Kentucky's favor is that no other college basketball team has really established themselves as the best in the country. The No. 1 ranking has flip-flopped weekly throughout the season, with Alabama (22-4) taking over on top of the rankings following Purdue's losses to Northwestern and Maryland last week.
Still, the updated college basketball championship odds show the Kentucky Wildcats (+6000) as a pretty heavy underdog. But it wouldn't come as much of a surprise if those odds were to rise even more before the Big Dance.
