NCAA Tournament 2017: Analyzing Championship Odds for Remaining Teams

Slowly, March Madness has lived up to its nickname. 

This year's bracket was a little like the new Drake album that dropped during it, More Life—underwhelming and more of the same at first, but better as it goes on and you sure can't bash the consistent quality of it.

The bracket didn't have any major notables over the first two days or so, but with spots in the Sweet 16 on the line, powerhouses like top-seeded North Carolina and second-seeded Kentucky flirted with disaster, while others such as top-seeded Villanova fully went down with the ship.

With the Sweet 16 set, Las Vegas has pulled back the curtain on championship odds. They are, in a word, interesting. Would-be bettors have plenty of openings to finish the year on a high note, though, through smart investments.

Let's take a look.

March Madness 2017 Bracket and Updated Championship Odds

Team	Odds
Kansas	19-4
UNC	5-1
Arizona	13-2
Gonzaga	13-2
UCLA	9-1
Kentucky	10-1
Florida	12-1
Baylor	16-1
Michigan	16-1
West Virginia	18-1
Oregon	18-1
Wisconsin	18-1
Purdue	20-1
Butler	40-1
South Carolina	50-1
Xavier	75-1

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.

Odds Highlights

Safest Bet: Kansas

Boring?

Sure. There isn't much of a payout with No. 1 Kansas (No. 3 in ESPN.com's RPI rankings), which makes sense. But part of the strategy behind finding success in a period defined by its unpredictability is taking a safe route to insulate riskier plays.

The 30-win Jayhawks are the ultimate safe route this year. They blew through 16th-seeded UC Davis 100-62, getting double digits from all five starters and shooting 56.3 percent (36-of-64) from the floor.

After that, the Jayhawks walked into what might have been a projected tough matchup with ninth-seeded Michigan State, only to cruise 90-70. Call it a display of balance—freshman Josh Jackson dropped 23 points while senior Frank Mason III added another 30, propelling the Jayhawks to 50 points in the second half and a total 53.1 percent shooting (34-of-64) from the floor.

Head coach Bill Self noted his guys turned it on the most when the Spartans got close, per Bobby Nightengale of the Lawrence Journal-World:

Which should scare the rest of the bracket. Up next is fourth-seeded Purdue (RPI 19), a team that only went 1-5 against the RPI top 25. Third-seeded Oregon or seventh-seeded Michigan can put up plenty of points should the Jayhawks advance, but Self's team clearly knows how to pour it on when it matters.

So boring, but smart.

Worth a Look: Oregon

The third-seeded Ducks offer a nice payout if a bettor believes the backcourt can stay hot and pull off an upset or two. 

The Ducks (No. 9 RPI) slammed past 14th-seeded Iona, 93-77, to start the tournament, getting 24 and 18 points from Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks, respectively. The two pace Oregon and have enough firepower to clearly convince Las Vegas that a title isn't the craziest idea in the world.

And maybe it isn't. The Ducks then ran a four-guard approach to counter a game 11th-seeded Rhode Island team, getting another 27 from Dorsey and 19 from Brooks in the 75-72 win—which doesn't sound great, but beating a team that shot 50.8 percent (30-of-59) from the floor and had upset a No. 6 seed is quite the feat.

Rhode Island's efficiency wasn't the only problem.

“That defense we faced is as good as any defense we faced all year,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said, according to the Associated Press (via USA Today). “We were very fortunate today with our turnovers to get that done."

Buying Oregon means a belief the team might have a shot in a shootout with Kansas. But the Ducks are 10-2 over their last 12, 2-3 against the RPI top 25 and 17-4 against the top 100. Dorsey and Brooks staying hot means brackets busted, or in this case, smart risks.

Worth a Hail Mary: South Carolina

Of the teams with the longest odds, seventh-seeded South Carolina might have the easiest path to a shocking run.

The Gamecocks (RPI 43) are only 6-6 over their last 12, but 2-2 against the RPI top 25. In the bracket, senior Sindarius Thornwell dropped 29 points while the team cruised past 10th-seeded Marquette, 93-73. Shooting 52.2 percent (35-of-67) was only second in impressiveness to the Gamecocks forcing 18 turnovers.

Then South Carolina knocked off Duke.

Thornwell posted 24 there in an 88-81 upset of the No. 2 seed, with five players hitting double digits and a stingy defense easing the Blue Devils into 18 turnovers. That defense is why the Gamecocks have now won two games in a row after suffering a tournament drought since 1973.

"When you shoot 7-for-35 in the first half and you're down just seven points, I tell you, it just gives you confidence," Thornwell said, per Zach Schonbrun of the New York Times. "It was our defense. It kept us in it. We thought we could win the game coming out the second half because of shooting so poorly in the first half." 

Strong defense and an SEC Player of the Year could mean the Gamecocks aren't even close to finished.

South Carolina next gets third-seeded Baylor, which struggled past 11th-seeded USC in its last game. The East Region as a whole is already without top-seeded Villanova. Compare it to other longshots such as fourth-seeded Butler (which plays No. 1 North Carolina) and 11th-seeded Xavier (which plays No. 2 Arizona and No. 1 Gonzaga is still alive), and it's easy to see why the Gamecocks have the best outlook.

Given "madness" is the word used to describe this whole affair, the Gamecocks beating the odds would seem quite fitting.

Advanced metrics courtesy of ESPN.com.