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March Madness 2016 – Who is Favored To Make it to the Top?

For just under three weeks the nation's sports attention will be focused on the annual NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (aka March Madness), with a champion being crowned on Monday night, April 6th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Legal march madness betting is available with minimum +500 odds if your favorite team wins it all.

The nation's only undefeated team, Kentucky (31-0), is favored to become the first school to finish with a perfect record since Indiana in 1975-76, but there are plenty of contenders capable of knocking off John Calipari's Wildcats. Kentucky undoubtedly has the most talent and depth, but teams such as Virginia, Gonzaga and Wisconsin all have the big bodies and more importantly, the experience in abundance that could very well test Kentucky in a winner-take-all scenario.

Barring any monumental upsets in the weekend's conference tournaments, the projected top four seeds appear to be Kentucky, Virginia, Duke, and the fourth from among Villanova, Wisconsin, Gonzaga and Arizona. But, as recent NCAA tournaments have proven, all bets are off once the games begin. "Cinderella" teams such as Butler, Wichita, Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason have managed to "crash" the Final Four party, with Butler reaching the championship contest in successive seasons (2009-10, 2010-11), although the Bulldogs came up short both times.

The conferences expected to have the most representatives include the ACC, with Virginia, Duke, Notre Dame, Louisville and North Carolina virtual locks, with N.C. State on the bubble. The Big 12 should also be well represented, with Kansas, Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma, while West Virginia and Texas may need to pull an upset in the conference tournament to earn a berth. Two other of the "power" conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC, won't be as well represented in terms of numbers, but Wisconsin (Big Ten) and Kentucky (SEC), according to the most recent Las Vegas betting lines, are favorites to be in Indianapolis. To win it all, oddsmakers have Kentucky at 1/1, Wisconsin 6/1, Duke 10/1, Arizona and Virginia 12/1, and Villanova at 16/1.

On the court, it's the players who win or lose, and the 2015 edition of March Madness won't be any different. Kentucky's roster of blue-chip recruits is led by Willie Cauley-Stein, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Harrison twins, Aaron and Andrew. Wisconsin's senior tandem of Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker are a matchup nightmare, and if Traevon Jackson is able to return from an early January broken foot, the Badgers will be that much tougher. Duke's freshman trio of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow have been largely dominant for the Blue Devils, and while Virginia doesn't have big-name stars, Malcolm Brogdon is one of the nation's best guards, and no other team can shut down opponents like the Cavaliers. Other than Towns and Okafor, there are plenty of potential "one-and-done" freshmen who'll be looking to cement their brief college legacy by helping their team to deep tournament runs. Some of the more notable include Arizona's Stanley Johnson, Maryland's Melo Trimble and Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell. Conversely, their are also several "old-timers" who've elected to remain in school, and now as seniors, they hope their experience can be a difference-maker during March Madness. These "greybeards" include Duke's Quinn Cook, Villanova's Jayvaughn Pinkston, Notre Dame's Jerian Grant, Utah's Delon Wright, Gonzaga's Kevin Pangos and Dekker and Kaminsky of Wisconsin.

There's also no shortage of Hall of Fame head coaches leading teams into the tournament, with several having already winning a championship. Kentucky's Calipari, Duke's Krzyzewski, Kansas' Bill Self, Louisville's Rick Pitino, UNC's Roy Williams and SMU's Larry Brown are among this group, with plenty of other accomplished "X's and O's" maestros fully capable of guiding their teams to the Final Four.