2024 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament Odds: Betting lines released to win it all
The Pac-12 Tournament is drawing closer and closer, which means it’s time to start thinking about who to bet to win the whole thing and take the league’s auto-bid by next Sunday.
Arizona is obviously the top dog in the conference, and our friends at FanDuel have made them pretty significant favorites. However, if you’ve soured on the Wildcats, there’s plenty of secondary contenders and a couple of longer shots that could be worth taking a look at.
Below, you can see the FanDuel odds for each team in the conference to win the Pac-12 Tournament as of Monday afternoon:
1. Arizona (-150)
Getting started at noon west coast time on Thursday is the tourney favorites, Arizona. The Wildcats aren’t just favored, but prohibitively favored with minus-money odds to win three games in three days to shut down the rest of the league. That’s a lot of faith in Tommy Lloyd’s team.
After all, Arizona showed they can lose to Oregon State or Stanford, so there’s no loss that feels impossible in this tournament. However, with the relative lack of depth in the Pac-12 and just one other contender you feel good about, Washington State, you can see why most folks will probably opt to bet the Wildcats if they bet at all.
2. Colorado (+480)
It is not those Washington State Cougars as second-favorites to win the tourney despite playing as the second-best team in the Pac-12 all season long. Heck, Colorado isn’t even assured an NCAA Tournament bid yet but is second-favorites to win this tourney with a path that requires beating Arizona State or Utah and then (most likely) Washington State in the second game to get to the title.
But the Buffaloes may be trendy Pac-12 tournament picks for two reasons. 1.) They closed the season with six straight wins, including vs. Utah and at Oregon. 2.) Analytical models like Colorado a lot and believe they’re much better than the 22-9 group that they’ve been. Who knows, maybe we see this Buffs train keep rolling.
3. Washington State (+700)
If you’re looking for some value on paper, then Washington State is a team you might love at their current 7-1 odds to win the Pac-12 Tournament. The Cougars finished one game behind Arizona in second place in the league and swept the Wildcats during the regular season to enter this weekend as one of only two Pac-12 teams with an assured NCAA Tournament berth in their future.
WSU did drop puzzling games at Arizona State and at home vs. Washington in the final weeks, but over the course of the season, there’s no question these Cougars are the top competitors to Arizona — and more than capable of beating them. Oddsmakers disagree.
4. Oregon (+1100)
Oregon was once 13-3 and 5-0 in the Pac-12 before a tough end of the season with a 7-8 record the rest of the way to all but eliminate any NCAA Tournament chances. But we’ve seen this song and dance with a Dana Altman team before. Like in 2018-19, when the Ducks experienced a brutal regular season but rebounded to win the Pac-12 Tournament and earn a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they advanced to the Sweet 16 and lost to eventual champ Virginia.
You’d still be crazy to believe in the same sort of run unfolding, but clearly, it’s not impossible! Oregon made a run from off the bubble to auto-bid in 2019 and Oregon State did the same thing in 2021. If there’s one power conference bracket that’s always wide open, it’s the Pac-12.
5. Utah (+1700)
Oregon and Utah experienced extremely similar seasons. Both teams entered Pac-12 play with strong records, swept their Washington road trips vs. the Huskies and Cougars and then just kind of fell apart.
With wins over Saint Mary’s BYU and Wake Forest all before the turn of the year, the Utes seemed primed for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since Delon Wright and Jakob Poeltl were on the team eight seasons ago. Alas, the Utes instead went 7-11 in their final 18 games to drop off the map.
6. USC (+2200)
The Trojans went through one incredibly wacky season. That’s not a good thing, as the Trojans are one of the biggest disappointments in the entire country after closing out decent last year plus landing the No. 1 2023 recruit and getting star player Boogie Ellis back.
But at 14-17, you’d expect them to be pretty awful, and while that’s sometimes the case, Andy Enfield’s group still show flashes of that top-15 caliber team they could be — especially with their talent in the backcourt. See that win over Arizona to end the regular season as example.
Odds for remaining teams
Washington +3000
UCLA +4000
Stanford +6000
California +10000
Arizona State +15000
Oregon State +25000