
Sweet 16 Bracket 2015: Real-Time Odds to Win 2015 NCAA Title
And then there were four.
Michigan State joined Kentucky and Wisconsin in the Final Four on Sunday afternoon, dispatching Louisville in an overtime thriller.
Shortly thereafter, Duke pulled away from Gonzaga, ending the Bulldogs' dreams of reaching their first Final Four while propelling Mike Krzyzewski to the 12th of his career.
From the beginning of the Sweet 16, we updated the chances for each of the remaining teams to win the national championship, and these are our final odds for the last four teams.
4. Michigan State
1 of 4
Eye test: Over the past two years, there has been something magical about being the No. 7 seed in the East Region. Connecticut won it all from that spot last season, and now Michigan State is into the 2015 Final Four.
Travis Trice has scored at least 15 points in all four games for the Spartans, but Bryn Forbes was just as big in the Elite Eight game against Louisville, scoring 14 points off the bench—five of them in overtime.
Roadblocks ahead: The Spartans knocked off Virginia and Louisville to get to this point and will need to go through one more ACC team to reach the national championship game. If the Spartans can go through Duke and Kentucky to win it all, it would be one of the most incredible title runs in tournament history.
Keys to winning it all: Michigan State has played incredible defense in the tournament and will need to continue doing exactly that. Tournament opponents have shot just 33.9 percent against the Spartans.
Championship odds: 9-1
3. Wisconsin
2 of 4
Eye test: Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker have been nothing short of amazing. Kaminsky has averaged 22.8 points through four tournament games. Dekker isn't far behind at 21.8 after scoring a career-high 23 on Thursday before again scoring a career-high 27 on Saturday.
Dekker, in particular, was unstoppable against Arizona in the Elite Eight. Kaminsky had 29, but it took him 20 shots. Dekker had 27 points on 11 shots and had 20 of those on six field-goal attempts in the second half. It was downright ridiculous what the frontcourt duo was able to do against one of the best defenses in the country.
Roadblocks ahead: Wisconsin has already gotten through two major road blocks in North Carolina and Arizona, but there should be two even bigger ones ahead. The Badgers will face Kentucky in the Final Four before a potential rematch with Duke in the national championship.
Keys to winning it all: Keep playing Wisconsin basketball. As Kaminsky said to Rachel Nichols after the Elite Eight game on the TBS broadcast, "I knew we could get back to the Final Four. We just had to believe in ourselves." As long as the Badgers are doing their efficient thing on offense, they could win it all.
For the past several months, many have been asking which team is best suited to beat Kentucky. The way the Badgers played against Arizona is exactly why they have been the most likely candidate all along.
Championship odds: 11-2
2. Duke
3 of 4
Eye test: Typically renowned for its offense, Duke's defense has been stellar in this tournament. Opponents are averaging just 53.5 points per game against the Blue Devils.
Justise Winslow was incredible in the two games played in Houston, finishing with 37 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks and two steals against Utah and Gonzaga. We thought coming into the tournament that he would need to be Duke's X-factor, and he has not disappointed.
But the true X-factor in the Elite Eight game against Gonzaga was Matt Jones. He scored 16 against the Bulldogs, hitting four of seven three-point attempts while also recording three steals.
Roadblocks ahead: The Blue Devils get a rematch with Michigan State in the Final Four, having already beaten the Spartans by 10 points on a neutral court earlier this season.
The biggest roadblock, though, is the one we've been waiting for all year long. It would only be fitting for Duke and Kentucky to square off in the national championship in the year of the "I Hate Christian Laettner" documentary.
Keys to winning it all: The key for Duke is perimeter shooting—Okafor will be great inside, he will score in double digits and create havoc. But if Cook and Winslow aren't connecting from the beyond the arc, the team becomes too one-dimensional.
Also, in a close game, Duke wants to keep Okafor off of the line. Free-throw shooting is the big man's only discernible weakness, having knocked down just 51.6 percent of his freebies on the year.
Championship odds: 4-1
1. Kentucky
4 of 4
Eye test: All you can say after that Kentucky vs. Notre Dame game is "Wow."
The Wildcats played a pair of unbelievable contests in Cleveland this weekend. In the first, they absolutely slaughtered West Virginia, scoring twice as many points as the Mountaineers and looking like the most dominant team in the country.
But after comfortably handling West Virginia's quickness, they got the game of the tournament from Notre Dame's four-guard lineup. In the end, though, Kentucky had the toughness to pull out the win—arguably thanks in large part to earlier challenges against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, LSU and Florida. Fans who had no real stake in the game were more nervous than the Wildcats looked in scraping out the win.
Roadblocks ahead: Karl Anthony-Towns was a monster in the paint, and they'll probably need another Herculean effort from him in the Final Four against Wisconsin's front line to get one step closer to 40-0. Chances are the Wildcats will then draw Duke in the championship game, giving us back-to-back contests against the two teams we all talked about wanting to see Kentucky face this year.
Keys to winning it all: Kentucky just needs to be Kentucky and take these games one possession at a time. The talent is there in all aspects. The teamwork is there. The coaching is there. The perfect season and history are both there for the taking. Kentucky just needs to stay calm, stay true to itself and go get them.
Championship odds: 4-5

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