NCAA Women's Championship Game 2016: Latest Odds and Predictions

The numbers just don't add up for Syracuse.

Seventy-Four.

That's how many consecutive wins the UConn Lady Huskies have accumulated coming into their national championship showdown against the Orange.

Three.

That's how many consecutive national titles the Lady Huskies have won in a row. Oh, and it's also the number of 2016 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ All-America Team selections from UConn, as Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck were all chosen for that honor.

The numbers go on and on. The Lady Huskies have the largest average margin of victory in the nation at 39.9 points per game, per NCAA.com. They lead the women's game in scoring offense (88.2 points per game), scoring defense (48.3 points allowed per game), assists per game (21.6) and field-goal percentage (53.0 percent). They are second in the nation in blocked shots per contest (6.4).

Stewart (19.2 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 124 total blocks), a three-time Associated Press Player of the Year, is arguably the greatest women's college basketball player in history. She has, undoubtedly, one of the greatest supporting casts in history as well, led by Jefferson (12.6 PPG, 5.5 APG) and Tuck (13.5 PPG, 5.7 RPG).

That trio may very well represent the three best players in the nation.

And the talent doesn't drop off a cliff after that. Four Lady Huskies in total average double-digit points per game. Nine average 10 or more minutes per contest. They are deep, they are big and they are athletic.

They have no weaknesses—at least none that have been exposed yet.

Not surprisingly, then, they are the prohibitive favorites coming into the game, as Oddschecker.com has UConn (-24) favored by a landslide. For a national title game, that number is monstrous. To put it into perspective, North Carolina (-3) was the slightest of favorites over Villanova heading into Monday night's men's national championship game, per Oddsshark.com.

This isn't a David vs. Goliath matchup, folks. This is more like David vs. the United States Armed Forces.

Indeed, if Syracuse upsets UConn on Tuesday night, it might go down as the biggest upset in sports history. But don't tell the Orange the odds. Unlike the rest of the country, they think they are going to win, as Brittney Sykes told the Associated Press (via the Wall Street Journal):

"

Every year in media day [head coach Quentin Hillsman] says the same thing and we believe the same thing that we’re going to win the national championship and compete for the national championship. We’re doing that right now. We’re here in this moment, living in this moment. Tuesday we’ll be competing for what he’s been saying all these years.

"

Any underdog of this magnitude needs to have something special, though; something particular about the way it plays that allows it to shock its more talented opponent.

In 1985, Villanova played methodically on offense, shot an unthinkable 78.6 percent from the field and played stifling and varied defenses to upset Georgetown in arguably the biggest upset in college basketball history.

For Syracuse, the game plan will be to pester UConn into turnovers. The Orange lead the nation in turnover margin (+10.22) and are second in the nation in steals per game (12.7). It's that ability to disrupt another team's rhythm that has gotten them this far, as Bud Poliquin of Syracuse.com noted:

"

You've seen how the Orange (30-7) has agitated its way into Tuesday evening's NCAA Tournament title game against the Connecticut Huskies. You've seen how SU has dazed and confused its opponents, who've mostly begun their games with struts and ended them largely with snivels.

Army… Albany… South Carolina… Tennessee… Washington. Combined, they've been forced into 106 turnovers and into a field-goal percentage of .397 and into losses by an average margin of 16.8 points. As a cause-and-effect result, each has been tossed through the doors of this competition by Syracuse.

"

Taking UConn out of its rhythm is a tall enough task on its own, as few teams have the experience or composure of the Lady Huskies. But even that won't be enough. Much like that 1985 Villanova team, Syracuse will also need to shoot lights out from the field—namely from beyond the arc, where it averages nearly 30 attempts per game—and will probably need a bit of an off night from UConn. 

And that's why it's so hard to predict that Syracuse will even be able to keep this game close. For Syracuse to make things interesting, let alone win, the Orange will need to play the perfect game. And they'll need UConn to play poorly.

And expecting either one of those to occur, let alone both of them simultaneously, seems a fool's errand.

So, yes, it's nearly impossible to justify anything but a victory for UConn. It is too talented, too experienced and too motivated to be upset by an inferior—albeit scrappy—Syracuse team. There is history to be made, after all. 

Because the numbers, as always, do add up for UConn.

Prediction: UConn wins, 85-68.

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